


Rogue Four

by Dianalynn1138



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Gingerflower, Gingerrose - Freeform, Loss of Parent(s), Military, Military AU, Minor Character Death, Smut, Spec Ops - Freeform, War, War Crimes, graphic description of death, hux/rose, killing of the enemy, memories of war, sniper fire
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:41:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 37,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23200357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dianalynn1138/pseuds/Dianalynn1138
Summary: Dr. Rose Tico had one night with an officer in the Irish Defense Service, one she will never forget, telling herself if one night was all she could have, she would be fine.Lt. Armitage Hux lives in the moment, never knowing if he will make it one day to the next. One night with Dr. Rose Tico Hux knew he would never be the same.Now, four years later, Rose and Hux have to survive insurgent forces and fight through their own feelings in a hostile environment not knowing if they will get to see the next day.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Rose Tico
Comments: 116
Kudos: 100





	1. Prologue

Dr. Rose Tico was on a mission, her quarry was in the vicinity and all she had to do was be patient and he would show himself. She shifted slightly, moving from her location behind a bush to get a better look at her surroundings and to have eyes on the main door she knew her man would be walking out of at any moment. “Gotcha!” she said, moving as gracefully as she could in dress that was _just_ too long on her short frame even with the ridiculous heels towards the man exiting the kitchen. 

“Crab cake miss?” the waiter in a white shirt, black vest and bow tie and long apron placed the fresh tray of the most delicious crab cakes in front of Rose and she smiled, taking a handful in her napkin.

“Thank you, Toby. You’re a good man.” Rose spoke to the waiter with whom she had become fast friends with almost the moment she entered this horrible place. Always make friends with the wait staff, they are the real heroes of the event, a moto Rose had lived by since her first stuffed shirt gathering back in medical school. “Now to find Sarah and the champagne…” Rose said to herself as she popped the last of the crab cakes into her mouth, tossing the napkin into the trash as she walked by. Rose knew she couldn’t hold both, a glass of champagne AND food since she had to have one hand free to pick her long dress up, so going back and forth between the two. 

After five minutes of watching for Sarah and her tray of bubbly delight, Rose gave up and headed towards the bar at the corner of the hall figuring that it would just be easier to get a glass there, and, if she played her cards right, maybe Rose could position herself where she could take her shoes off. Finding a strategic spot on the side, Rose slipped off the 4 inch heels; no one noticing the pooling of the heavy skirt around her. The feel of the cool floor was a balm to her aching arches and balls of her feet and Rose had to fight from letting out the sound of extasy that was building in her throat from the simple action of taking her shoes off. 

“I do not know how you women do it.” The voice came from behind Rose startling her. Turning around quickly, Rose was greeted by the Kelly-Green army uniform of the Irish officer, Lieutenant from the look of it. Rose had been in Dublin for the past year, training at the Irish home office of Doctors Without Borders waiting for her first assignment in country; wherever that country was. In this time, Rose had become well versed in the Irish military and their rankings, working closely with Cathal Brugha Barracks station as part of her training.

“I’m sorry?” Rose asked the stranger who was casually leaning forward on the bar’s counter having ordered a drink himself.

Once the stranger received his drink, double whiskey, by the looks of it, he turned to her and Rose got the first real look at the stranger’s face; and what a face it was, too. He was tall, even though she was almost comically petite, Rose could tell this man was taller than most Irishmen she had met since coming to Dublin. But, unlike those Irishmen, his face was tanned like he worked outside on a daily basis with a very faint smattering of freckles dotted across his nose and under his eyes. Next, Rose noticed his bright copper hair combed and held in place by a black beret and even in the low light, Rose could also see the green eyes with hints of grey, like the grass fields when a storm was coming through back home in Nebraska. But as beautiful as this man was, Rose could tell he was no soft. This man did not sit behind a desk on base or bark orders to new recruits. No, this man was a soldier who had seen some of the dark things this world has to offer. 

But then again, so had Rose.

“The shoes. I don’t know how you women make it look so fooking simple, standing around on your toes for hours on end, I’ve gone through torture training that I bet are less arduous than what you have hiding under the skirts of that beautiful dress.” He looked Rose dead in the eyes, a hint of mirth in his own, and was that? No, couldn’t be, was that interest? In Rose? 

Rose had had boyfriends before, it wasn’t that a man being interested in her was laughable, but he was a stranger talking to her about the torture training he had gone through and he was flirting with her.

“You have no idea. I bet if you boys had to spend even an hour in these you would break and give away all your military secrets.” Rose said, hoping it sounded as if she was flirting back.

“Oh, I’m sure of it.” The stranger crooned in a deep Irish accent. The sounds hitting Rose in places she hadn’t thought about in ages. “Armitage.” The stranger held out his hand for Rose to shake. 

“Rose.” She said, taking his offered hand. “Are you supposed to drink in uniform?” Rose commented on the almost empty glass in his hand.

“Oh, well you see, it’s Ireland, it’s actually a clause in my conscription papers that I **_must_** drink in uniform.” They both laugh at the comment, a silly stereotype, she liked that he could make fun of. 

“What brings you to a charity gala, Armitage?” Rose didn’t want to drop his hand, but at some point, it would be strange and awkward for her to still be holding it, wouldn’t it?

“Free food. You?” He said with a small tilt of his mouth. Rose watched as he took a sip of his drink, not even wincing at the taste. Rose hated hard liquor, never developed a taste for it. Wine was her drink of choice, the cheaper the better. Being in Ireland had been difficult, with beer and whiskey all around, but suddenly Rose was hit with a desire to know what that whiskey tasted like as it lingered on his lips. 

“Same.” Rose finally answered taking a sip from her own glass to give her hands something to do. “Actually, I drew the short straw. I am at the DWB training station and since one of the beneficiaries of tonight’s event is my program, one of us had to come.” Rose explained. 

“Ahh, Medicines Sans Frontier.” Armitage used the French name for her organization, saying the name with a hint of Irish accent. Rose was a goner. “Does that mean you must stay for the entire night?” Rose noticed he had moved closer to her. 

Rose gave this thought. “I’ve said hello to the correct people and eaten my weight in crab cakes.” Rose took in a shaky breath as Armitage moved even closer to her, softly petting her lower back through the sequins of the blue dress Rose was wearing. 

“Then, what do you say we make a break for it, see where the night takes us?” Rose nodded softly at his suggestion. 

“Shall I take your shoes?” That question was said directly into Roses ear, his hot breath a caress on the shell of her ear. He bent down to the floor, moving her skirt and picking up her shoes before she could answer him. 

Armitage stood to his full height, offered Rose his arm and they headed towards the door, Rose holding her dress up high enough, she didn’t trip on them as they walked quickly outside. Rose saw Armitage’s car was still in the driveway, not yet parked by the attendants, had he just arrived? Rose didn’t have much time to think about his arrival schedule for long; she was whisked away into his front seat and they were off. 

The drive didn’t take long, after giving Armitage her address, Rose sat back and watched the city fly by. Happy for the short ride, Rose didn’t have time to second guess her actions, picking up a man and bringing him home after a five-minute conversation at a bar counter? This was reckless and dangerous and stupid, but then Rose looked at the man driving and the butterflies which had taken up residence in her belly began to attempt a breakout. Yes, this may be a bad idea for many different reasons, but Rose didn’t care. Armitage was the single most handsome man Rose had ever seen and he wanted her. Rose knew if her sister Paige was here, she would tell her to ride this ginger until you break him. And who was Rose to go against the wishes of her late sister?

Once parked, Rose unlocked the door to the building and moved to let Armitage into the hallway. Still barefoot, Rose padded up the two flights of stairs and down the hallway to her small one room flat and stopped at her door to unlock it; Armitage’s lips on her exposed neck and shoulder and his hands clutching her hips from behind, feeling his erection pressing into her lower back. 

Once the door was open, they fell into the flat in a tumble of arms, lips, hands and heated sighs from both. The door was kicked shut, Rose was going to get a stern look from her landlady for the noise, as they moved into the main room. Rose’s flat was a studio apartment with a couch, bed and kitchen, and a bathroom off to the side. As she and Armitage moved through the room, she felt her zipper being pulled down, and in turn, she began unbuttoning his uniform jacket, stripping it off of his shoulders in a rough tug. Before she knew it, her blue dress was pooled around her feet, but before she could step out of it, Armitage reached around her and lifted her into the air, cradling her knees and back. 

Once Rose was laid on her bed, she was able to watch this beautiful man strip for her, the light from the city as well as the full moon making him almost seem to glow. First the shirt came off, and holy shit this mad was ripped. Abs, pecks, and that V leading into his pants. Distantly Rose knew she could name all the correct terms for those part of the body, but her brain was filled with lust and serotonin that should didn’t care what the names were. Next off were his pants, leaving him only his black boxer briefs and the most beautiful cotton covered erection she had ever seen. Rose sat up and reached for him, but he pushed her hand away. 

“No, my flower, me first.” He went to his knees in front of her, opening her wider. “So fooking beautiful.” Rose her him whisper as she felt her panties being pulled down her legs, with soft kisses trailing behind. The sound of his rough accent against her skin getting Rose even closer and he hadn’t even fully touched her yet. 

Armitage’s lips worked their way back up Rose’s thigh ending their journey at the top of her pubis, pressing a soft but lingering kiss just above the soft curls at the juncture of her legs. Rose looks down her body and meets Armitage’s wicked sultry gaze as he lifts one of her legs over his shoulder and gives her wet folds one long lick with his flat tongue. 

Rose let out a sound she didn’t know she could even make as he began to kiss, nip, lick, and tug at her most intimate flesh, making her writhe on the bed, reaching for anything to hold her to the earth as she came the first time; the pillow behind her, the sheets beneath and the ginger hair between her legs. Rose called out his name as he nuzzled her clit with his nose making her come apart for a second time in a matter of minutes. Rose had never been able to orgasm more than once in a night, this man had made her come twice times in a span of moments and he wasn’t even inside her.

Rose sat up before he could continue his torture, pulling him up her body, leaning in for a kiss that seared her soul. As his tongue danced with her, she could taste herself in the kiss, it was intoxicating. Rose reached for the bedside table and pulled out a foil packet as he relieved himself of the last bit of clothing he still had on, the erection standing at full attention, with a deep purple head and already a beat of wetness dotting the head. Rose ripped the packet open with her teeth and rolled it on while he bent down to take another one of those thought-stealing kisses. 

Once the condom was on, Armitage reached for one of her legs to open her up fully and slid home. They both broke the kiss to let out a moan of pleasure before he started moving inside of her, thrusting his hard cock into her while his lips continued to roam around her body. Rose’s hands went back into Armitage’s hair as his lips clasped around one of her harden nipples, biting at the pebbled flesh and tugging at it playfully. 

It didn’t take long before they were both crashing to earth again, his thrusting picking up speed and she began to quiver around him in another earth-shattering orgasm. Then it was Armitage’s turn to come, thrusting into the orgasm kissing Rose deep and hard, almost as if he were marking her as his. Rose pushed that thought away as soon as she thought it. She couldn’t keep him. They were two ships that passed in the night; she would be in country somewhere and only god knew where he was meant to be. _No,_ Rose thought as he regretfully pulled out of her and went to dispose of the condom, returning to the bed and wrapping her up in his arms. Softly kissing her before they both fell asleep, _he’s not someone you keep._

That last thought was almost too much for her to take as she fought back the tears stinging her eyes. She would not cry, they lived different lives. She would not cry at the feeling of him holding her so tightly as if he couldn’t bear to let her go either. _You will not cry._ Rose finally fell asleep to the sounds of his soft breathing.

Rose woke up to an empty bed, and she didn’t know why it hurt so badly. The note on the table was short a sweet, much like their night together. 

****

**_I got called into work. I don’t know when I’ll be back. Last night was amazing._ **

**_Goodbye my beautiful flower._ **

****

**_Armitage._ **

Rose allowed the tears to fall as she sat alone on the bed.


	2. Rogue Team

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please know that I some of the technical stuff is coming from things I have learned over the years of watching military shows/movies as well as growing up in a military town. If I have gotten anything glaringly wring, please let me know. I am also going to change some of the Tags to cover any TW.

Armitage Hux, Code Name: General, Call Sign: Rogue 4, jumped off the chopper, gathered his gear and rifle case before walking the thirty or so yards to a waiting armored jeep that would take him to Forward Operations Base Jarrus in MonCala, Lothal where the other members of Rogue Team were already holed up. It would also take him to a hot shower, a hot meal and a bed that awaited him. Three days as overwatch was par for the course in his line of work, sniper and weapons expert for a Tier 1 Special Operations team, but damn if Hux was happy to be back on base. 

When he joined the Irish military almost fifteen years ago Hux never expected his life would take the turns it did. First in his class at basic training followed by officer training where his calm and collected demeaner made Hux the perfect fit for Sniper school. Multiple deployments to the worst parts of the planet added to the hardness Hux had developed from a young boy in Northern Ireland during the Troubles; internal calluses that he still fought to file down. Hux jumped into the armored truck that sat idle next to the landing pad, watching the Lothal scenery pass by on their way to the base set up outside the city center. 

Basecamp Jarrus has been the main operations base in Lothal since the war with the separatist from neighboring Kijimi invaded the country 7 years ago and the Exegol Militia began stripping the country of natural resources; resources like the kyber plant which most of the Lothal economy depended on for export, the flower grown and pressed for its oil. It was the stalk and leaves, though, which made the plant so valuable. When boiled down and the extract dehydrated, the kyber plant became a drug much like heroin, but unlike the drug made from poppies, Special K, as it was known to the public, was undetectable by canines, making the drug easily movable across borders and very difficult to locate.

The ride to Jarrus took almost an hour and the early morning sun felt good on Hux’s filthy face and his beard, which was now past the point of growth Hux was comfortable with, itched with the sand, sweat and debris from being in the hide for an extended period of time. As he always did on his return to base came, Hux played his mission objective over in his head, making sure that when he was debriefed, he would have every detail easily at the ready when asked. This came in handy when he had to detail the shots taken and if those shots hit any targets; Hux was elite even in a world of the elite, he never missed. 

The truck went passed the two check points before entering the grounds and Hux had to smile when he saw his teammates messing around in their small area of camp. The truck came to a stop and Hux jumped out, grabbing his gear and rifle case. Then, after saying thank you to the driver, he walked over to his team’s location.

“Here comes the General!” Hux heard Poe Dameron say as he tossed the tennis ball for his partner, a German Shephard named Beelzebub, or BB for short. Hux raised his gear in salute but kept walking.

“Oh, I see how it is, you’re the hero of the op and you’re just going to walk on past us?” Poe said with a smile.

Hux wasn’t a hero, not in any sense of the word, but he had been the one to pull the trigger a moment before Poe would have been shot in the back by the enemy, sending pink mist into the air and keeping Poe alive.

“You know the rules, I don’t talk to anyone until I have a hot shower, hot meal and at least 4 hours of sleep before I have to deal with any of you arse holes!” Hux said with friendship and comradery in his voice. Ben, the team’s leader, ran up to Hux as he neared his bunk house and clapped him on the shoulder.

“You good?” Ben asked as Hux put the PIN in the door’s keypad. The door beeped and Hux opened the door walking in, Ben staying outside, not wanting to invade his teammate’s space.

“Five by five, Ben.” It was their code to let each know how they were both mentally and physically. No one lied when Ben asked this, that would put a layer of distrust within the team, and in this type of location and the work they did, trust was all they had. 

Ben nodded. “Alright. We meet at 17:30 in HAVOC.” Hux nodded and watched as Ben returned to the other teammates. After the door closed behind him, Hux went to business unpacking his gear. He was in desperate need of a shower but if he didn’t put everything back in their rightful place, he wouldn’t be able to sleep. The first thing he did was unpack Millicent, a Belgian made sniper’s rifle which was like an extension of his own body. Hux took her out of the case, looked her over, made sure all was where it needed to be. He laid the rifle out on his bed and began taking her apart. This was his favorite time; it was his only real meditation and he could do this with his eyes closed. Lothal had a desert landscape and the last thing Hux wanted was to have a single grain of sand lodged into Millicent’s firing mechanism. Anything that could keep the rifle from fulfilling its only mission was something that Hux couldn’t allow. 

An hour later, Hux put Millicent to bed and walked to the shower station around the back of his bunk house. As he stood under the spray, Hux watched all of the dirt, sweat and even dried blood from the sharp vegetation he had been laying on under the hide wash down the drain. He wasn’t one for long drawn out showers, the water supply on base was not the best but after missions like this, he took his time, letting the hot water, what was left of it, work out the tight muscles in his neck and back. 

When Hux got back to his bunk he smiled at the plate of food that was sitting on his desk. Gwen was a godsend sometimes. She was the reason he was on this team, and she took care of her team. Hux ate everything that was on the plate in front of him and watched the others mess around with the dog as well was each other. It wasn’t that Hux wasn’t social with the team, he was. He loved his brothers and sister on Rogue Team but after missions where he was overwatch for long periods of time, like the one he had just been on, Hux had to deal with the isolation he put himself in. Hux loved his job, he took pride in it, but he was raised in a warzone and sometimes he wondered if he was part of the problems facing the world today, and not, as he tried to tell himself when he was alone, part of the solution.

***

At 17:25, Hux strolled into HAVOC, Rouge Team’s base of operations while at Jarrus, and was greeted by a 95-pound dog which the United States military spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to train, but Poe Dameron, Code Name: Pilot, Call Sign: Rogue 2, treated like a domesticated puppy. A former Delta Force commander, Poe was not only being his unit’s K9 handler but also got his wings to help with exfil in a pinch. 

Hux bent down to pet the dog and bask in the normalcy the feel of BB’s fur always gave him. Walking over, Poe held out his hand to Hux. “Thank you.” Hux took the man’s hand and they gave each other a moment to take in what had transpired almost 24 hours before. BB was on the attack, his tough jaws on the arm of one of the militia men they were sent to extricate from the area, Poe giving the dog commands as he tried to get the man off the ground and into the containment unit when another militia member came up behind Poe with his rifle. Hux only caught the movement for a moment and fired at the man before he could pull his own trigger, taking Poe down. 

“Hey, I just didn’t want to get stuck with BB, if your arse gets killed, I know this mongrel would attach himself to me!” Hux tried to make a joke but in all honesty, next to Poe, Hux was BB’s favorite, much to Hux’s disbelief. 

“Oh, so you were just saving yourself from having to pick up BB’s shit, is that it?” Poe laughed in response. 

“Well, yeah, I’m nothing if not selfish!”

Poe laughed again as they moved to the center table surrounded by screens. “Hux greeted the other members of the team;

Ben Solo: Navy SEAL the team’s leader, Code Name: Ren, Call Sign: Rogue 1. Ben was on the team that took down General Tarkin, the world’s most wanted man, 5 years ago.

Finn Johnson: British Special forces, Code Name: Storm, Call Sign: Rogue 3. Finn was an SAS black ops specialist as well as field medic. 

Gwen Phasma: British Special Forces, Code Name: Wolf, Call Sign: Captain. Gwen hand-picked the members of Rogue Team, a team so secret it was an urban ledged even to other tier one elite operators. Five years ago, Gwen received intel through back channels about a plot that would possibly destroy an entire village in Lothal and after taking her findings up the chain of command, she was denied the operation to go forward. The next week a series of bombs detonated in the busy market town of Passana during a religious festival killing every person in the vicinity and leveling the entire village. The next day Gwen put in her resignation with SAS and a year later Rogue Team was created. 

“Alright, Everyone listen up, let’s get the pleasantries out of the way, Rogue Team, very nice work in the field, we have already begun to get quality intel from the captives you rounded up, and General took out 5 combatants including one that would have taken Pilot out so, a quick round to everyone involved.” Gwen always used code names in HAVOC in case anyone was stupid enough to try and bring a recording device in and compromise a mission. There was a pounding of tables and loud “Here here” said in the small command center before Gwen began the information in regard to their next mission.

Hux listened carefully to the intel being discussed, but Hux was a sniper, he didn’t have to help plan logistics or tactical movements on the ground. His job was to provide overwatch and make sure his teammates were covered while they performed their jobs. He knew that once the plans were set, it wouldn’t take long for him to be back under the tarp as he peered through Millicent’s scope while his brothers infiltrated whatever building, village or mountain range they had to in the never ending war they were all neck deep in. 

“General, do you see a place you can set up?” Hux dilled back into the conversation and looked at the topographical map on the screen. The op was a fairly basic one, except for the location; it was a prisoner transfer between the Lothal military, the sad group of fighters as they were, and the Exegol Militia, but it was the location that was giving the team pause. A refugee camp on the outskirts of a village which had been bombed out almost a year ago. This location would have been chosen to give the militia members cover due to the fact that the allied forces wouldn’t touch a camp filled with displaced women and children. The camp also housed a Doctors Without Borders outpost which was covered in the UN charter for protection. Hux did everything he could not to think about the single best night of his life with a member of DWB while he looked at the map. 

“There’s a ridge about 4 clicks from the camp and that gully is going to give me issues with wind, but it’s nothing I can’t prepare for. If I get dropped off here,” Hux points to an open space of flat land about 10km away from the ridge, “I can set up the hide and overwatch with sunrise at my back for cover.” The room agreed and after another hour of planning, the room dispersed. 

Hux walked back to his bunk house quiet thinking about what he needed to pack since wheels up was in a few hours. Normally he had a few days between missions but in the middle of spring, Fighting Season it was called, the team was sent on missions more than during the heat of the summer. As he double checked the ammunition bag he carried in his pack, Hux was startled by a knock at the door. Ben, the six-foot-five-inch tall behemoth of a man walked into the room and instantly made it tighter. Hux respected the shit out of his team leader but his need to double and sometime triple check on his men could get more than a little annoying. 

“You good? You got quiet in the meeting.” Ben sat on the chair and looked over the neat and orderly way Hux packed. Growing up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, Hux’s life was difficult. You never knew when your building would blow up, or the car you were walking by would suddenly explode. British tanks driving down your street with heavy machine guns pointing in your general direction as you walked the block and a half to school were common occurrences in Belfast. Ben tried hard to make understand how each of his men worked and processed things that went down, but Hux knew Ben could never know what it was life for him. 

“Yeah, I’m good. I don’t like being that lose to civilians, too many things that could happen, especially with children involved.” Hux continued to pack his bag as he spoke. 

Ben agreed and stood back up to his full height and headed towards the door. “Spin out in an hour.” Opening the door, Ben turned to look again. “Quick in and out, then we can go home.” Ben said before closing the door. Hux finished packing then sat on his bed, reaching under his t-shirt for his ID tags. Along with the two metal plates that hung around his neck which indicated his name, rank serial number, blood type and even religion, not that he had one, Hux had a small silver pendent attached; his mother’s Gaelic knot was the only thing he had left of her and he kept her close as if she were watching over him. 

Hux sat holding the pendent until his alarm beeped telling him it was time to head out. Hux went through the motions of putting his gear on, long sleeved UV protected shirt to cover his poor Irish skin from the desert sun which he tucked into his tactical pants. Heavy boots to keep his feet dry and safe from the snakes and insects that he might encounter in the dark during the 10 kilometer walk to his location at the ridge, and a light brown scarf to cover his face and bright ginger hair from view in the sun. Hux grabbed his gear bag, and rifle case carrying Millicent and headed to the chopper. Rogue Team was there to send him off only to follow him 12 hours later in an armored undercover van. 

Hux knew he needed to get his head in the game, think of his set up, the shots he might have to take, but all he could think about what the civilians he would encounter and the medical team that would be there. He had met with a few DWB teams over the years of deployments, hoping to meet up with his flower again, but seeing her again just didn’t seem to be in the cards much to his disappointment.

The chopper hovered over the landing site just long enough for Hux to jump out to start his walk to the ridge. He was going home in a few days; this would probably be his last mission on this trip so Hux knew he needed to make it a good one. Not that Dublin was home, it was just a place he slept and kept his things between missions. As the ridge came into view, Hux was focused once again at the task at hand. He had one job in this God forsaken land, keep the locals safe, and his team alive, and there was no one as good at it as Armitage Hux. 


	3. A Doctor Without Borders

The sun was coming up over the east ridge as Dr. Rose Tico rolled off of her cot, placing her sock covered feet onto the hard plywood floor headed towards the small desk. Rose picked up the small thermos of drinking water, pouring herself some while taking in her surroundings. Rose had been in on this tour for a year, Lothal being her preferred location, moving around to different camps around the war-torn country; this particular location, Resistance, had been set up by her and her staff two months ago after a local village had been attacked with mustard gas by the Exegol Militia trying to exfiltrate out a rebel cell. The village, having no rebel cell, ended up losing half of its population of older residence as well as the woman and children still residing in the ancient walls. Rose’s team had been a hundred miles away when they received news of the attack and within a two-day period, had established Resistance just inside the safe zone of the gas’ fallout. 

Rose’s daily routine didn’t change much day to day making them blend together. Because the camp’s resources were so limited, water in which to bathe was rationed, requiring the residences and staff designated days in which to shower. Rose’s allotted day was yesterday, and despite the sweat and grime from the last 24 hours, all she could do was splash water on her face and wash her hands after visiting the latrine tent.

“Is it just me, or do those showers keep getting shorter?” Rose heard from behind her as she began to set up the washing station in front of the mess tent. Kaydel Fisher, one of Rose’s teammates walked out of the showers in a robe and her combat boots trying to dry her hair with a towel. Kaydel was an orthopedic surgeon doing volunteer work with Doctors Without Borders and had quickly become one of Rose’s closest friends. She had been in Lothal for almost a year and it was going to hurt like hell when she left in two weeks. 

“Yeah, sorry about that, I had to shorten the timer until it rains to fill the tanks back up. But look on the bright side, in a couple of weeks you will be back in Chicago under the hot spray while the rest of us slum it here.” Rose said with a bittersweet smile. She wasn’t mad at Kaydel for going home. She wasn’t a full-time medic with the relief organization like Rose and the year she spent at Resistance had been invaluable; not just with her knowledge of setting bones on the fly after mortar attacks or roadside bombs, but after Rose’s sister had died, Rose didn’t really have anyone she could truly call a friend. Kaydel would be missed.

The sound of movement in the camp broke up the friend’s conversation and brought Rose back to her routine. Twenty-five children lived at Resistance, nine of them under the age of ten, three of those were under the age of three. Rose counted out the sandwiches, wheat bread made by some of the residence in camp with butter, or if one wished to be technical, margarine made from kyber oil. There wasn’t much nutritional value in the sandwiches, but they tasted good where the nutritional supplement drinks the kids got did not. But no one complained; the children were happy to have food in their bellies and Rose was happy she was able to provide a safe place for them to live and play. The health and safety of these people, her people, were first and foremost in Rose’s mind when she woke up in the mornings. It’s what kept her going when she herself had little to nothing to eat after a very long day of caring for them. They were in the beginning of what was known as the Fighting Season which meant that she and her crew had more people moving in and out of the medical wing of the camp needing care or a safe place to hole up for the time being. The refuges were kept in a separate location for safety reasons.

In the four years since leaving Dublin, Rose had thrown herself into a war she was never fully ready to fight; a war between an outside power-seeking control of something that was not theirs, from a people not strong enough to protect themselves through no fault of their own. The Lothal people were made up of peaceful farmers and nomadic tribes, a way of life Rose knew they would never be able to return, even if the war were to ever be over. 

“Roro!” Rose heard the small voice coming from one of the children’s tents, the sound was the only thing that could put a genuine smile on Rose’s wary face. Turning around, Rose saw the too small for her age little girl, Sabine, running towards her. Sabine was one of the orphans who lived at Resistance and bonded with Rose almost instantaneously. Sabine’s father had been killed in the fighting against the Militia when she you a baby leaving her mother to fend for herself and her very small child, only to be killed in the gassing of their village last year.

“Bean!” Rose bent down and lifted the small girl to rest on her hip giving her a tight hug. She loved this child more than anything and had begun the process to formally adopt her with the Lothan government. Rose would never ask for have children of her own, a family like that just wasn’t in the cards for her. Once leaving Dublin, and heading into the wilds of the uncontrollable world, Rose had decided that she could never settle down in the conventional way; husband, kids, a house, even the idea of a traditional medical practice or position at a hospital just didn’t hold her interest the way it may have when she was younger. 

But if Rose were to be fully honest with herself, something she did not like doing too often, those dreams had left her once she had met Armitage Hux all those years ago. Met, fallen in love with, and then lost over the course of one night. She wasn’t upset with him for leaving, he had a job to do and frankly, so did she. But waking up to a cold, empty bed with a note beside it was a formative moment for her; parents were both gone, her mother of cancer and her father gone months later seemingly of a broken heart. Paige, Rose’s sister had been killed as she was trying to clear landmines in Vietnam while Rose was just starting her medical residency. Rose was left alone more times then she could count making her think it would get easier, but it never did. Armitage leaving her had been her breaking point, Rose would no longer let people in who could hurt her. Sabine was just as alone in the world and Rose would never allow her a single moment of loneliness while she still drew breath. 

“Did you sleep well?” Rose asked taking in the little girl’s sleepy eyes and bed mussed hair. The little girl nodded and put her head on Rose’s shoulder. Sabine hadn’t really been much of a talker since coming to the camp and normally Rose would make her use her words instead of nodding, but Rose was nothing if not a softy when it came to this child. “Alright let’s get you some breakfast before your lessons start, ok?” Rose put Sabine down on the ground and held out her hand when something flashed in her periphery. Turning, Rose faced the ridge on the other side of the wide gorge opposite the camp. The sun was directly behind the ridge, so it was difficult to make out, but the bright dot was definitely there, if only for a moment. In the back of her mind, Rose knew the camp was protected under a UN peace charter, but that didn’t mean anything these days. Rose bend down and picked Sabine up, walking faster to the mess tent where Sabine could get her breakfast. Rose could have sworn she saw someone standing on the ridge, even with the morning sun directly in her eyes, she was almost sure. She looked again but saw nothing but the orange sun moving slowly into position. Maybe she was just sleep deprived and the desert was playing tricks on her. Wouldn’t be the first time.

The rest of her day was just as every other day had been for Rose; check on patients, work on the back log of paperwork she hated doing, and finally try to avoid the single worst mistake she had made since coming to Lothal. Thomas “Snap” Wexley was the camp’s resident educational instructor and had become a thorn in Rose’s side ever since the two had indulged in a sexual relationship after his arrival. Snap was tall, bearded and funny, everything a woman craved during the long, lonely nights in camp. When he showed up six months ago he was a breath of fresh air, someone to change the monotony of days which seemed to never end. It didn’t take long for Rose to fall prey to his charms, the English accent giving her a pang of sadness, wishing it had been Irish, only to hate herself for that thought. 

Rose and Snap’s relationship had only been a physical one, a way to pass the nights and relieve tension after a brutal day. Or, it had been that for Rose, Snap, however, had developed feelings for Rose wanting them to leave together when his tour was up. When Rose informed him, she was never going to leave, that Lothal, and more importantly Resistance was her home, he hadn’t gotten the hint to back off. 

“Snap at 2 o’clock.” Kaydel said as she handed her a cup of coffee, Rose’s only pleasure at the end of rounds with Kay; it was only coffee in the sense that it was dark, hot and made from some kind of bean grown in Lothal, but it did the trick. 

“Fuck. This is all I need right now. Does it look like he’s coming over here?” Rose kept her head down as if she were looking over a chart for the patient she had just seen when in fact it artwork Sabine made to decorate her tent. She didn’t need this today. Rose was still on edge with the possibility she had seen someone on that ridge, far too close for comfort. 

“Looks like he’s talking with the nurses while getting coffee.” Kay said taking a sip of her own brew. 

“He’s going to say something about Sabine, I know it.” Rose took a drink from the mug, wincing at the taste as well as the temperature. The stuff was only palatable if scalding hot, so one had to accommodate, taste buds be damned. 

“Why would he bring up Bean?”

“Because he knows that’s something I won’t ignore.”

“That’s some crafty shit!” Kaydel said a little impressed. “Oops, spoke too soon, here he comes.” Rose watched a Kay sat up a little straighter in her chair taking her feet out of the one directly across from her and plastered a welcoming smile. “Hey Snap, how was class today?”

Rose watched as he pulled the now empty seat out and sat down with a heavy sigh; Rose looked at Kay knowing what was coming.

“It was fine. Still really worried about Sabine, she’s just not engaging the way I think a child her age should.

Rose looked at Kay out of the corner of her eye. _See, told you!_

Kaydel tried to hide a laugh. “Well, Snap, she’s been through a lot and her English still isn’t the best, I’m know Rose has been working with her. Bean will come out of her shell in due time.” Kay was the best friend Rose could ever hope for. In the hospital tent she was her go-to to bounce ideas for treatment off of and out in the regular world, like now, she had Rose’s back in all things. Even taking the brunt of Snap’s focus. If only he would get the fucking hint already!

“I would love to spend time with both of you, see how you two interact and then…”

“I really appreciate it, Snap,” Rose interrupted as she closed the file and looked directly at Snap. “but Sabine has been through trauma that no one here at this table can possibly imagine. When she’s ready to interact, she will tell us. For now, I think it’s best if we just let her be in charge.” Rose stood up from the table giving them a curt smile and exiting the tent; the cooling evening air hitting her flushed face and giving her some relief. Rose thought about going to her tent to be alone, maybe she wasn’t in the best mood to be around people; the last thing she needed was to have to deal with any kind of fallout with her staff thanks to her bitchy attitude.

Walking out of the camp’s main area, she came across a group of young boys playing soccer by the makeshift fence a few meters away from the gorge. The sun was setting behind the camp now and the ridge she thought she saw someone on was in shadow. Rose looked around at the small crowd of parents and other children watching the players and noticed Sabine which made her happier than she had been all day. After walking over to where she was, Rose sat on the ground, pulling the little girl into her lap as she played with her doll, Hera. Rose watched as the boys continued to play but couldn’t help but keep an eye on the ridge overlooking the game. Was there someone up there before? Was there someone up there now? Rose held Sabine closer and began to plan out where the camp could move to if they were in danger.

It was going to be a long night.

***

It really was her.

When Hux saw the dark-haired women through Millicent’s scope in the early morning light, there was still a glimmer of hope that it was just his mind playing tricks on him. It had been four years; surly she would look different, he sure as hell did. But the woman sitting cross legged with a child in her lap was definitely Dr. Rose Tico and for the first time in his career as a sniper, Hux’s hands were shaking.

“Rogue Four to Rogue One, come in…” Hux normally communicated with the team though coded taps through the comm system so for Hux to break radio silence he hoped it would be enough to prove how important his calling in was.

“The is Rogue One, go ahead Rogue Four, what’s your position?” Hux nearly let out a howl of relief that Ben answered right away.

“Rogue One I need immediate extraction.” Hux said as clear as he could possibly make it without the panic rising in his voice being heard.

“Repeat Rogue Four?”

“Rogue One I am in need of immediate extraction. This op has taken a turn and we need to regroup to come up with a different plan.”

“Rogue Four, this is Wolf, please state the issue? Has your position been compromised?” Hux took a deep breath before answering Phasma. 

Years ago, just after he returned from Dublin to find Rose had gone, Ben had found Hux drunk off his ass in his bunk on base. Being a good leader and friend, Ben joined, waiting to hear about what had gotten his friend and teammate to reach such a point. Hux remembered as Ben sat there for hours, listening to Hux talk about this goddess of a woman. Hux had never believed in love at first sight, not until he saw Rose from across the room, and form that day on, whenever the team had come across a Doctors without Borders camp, Hux let Ben enter and ask who was on staff, even coming up with a code word if they finally came across her.

“Rogue Four, are you listening to me? Please explain the need for extraction.” Phasma’s words were clipped on the other end of the radio. But all Hux could do was stare at the woman in her scope. The woman he compared all other women to. His flower.

“Rogue Four answer me, that is an order.”

Hux took a deep breath and steeled himself for his response.

“Rogue Four to Rogue One: Cauliflower. I repeat Cauliflower.”


	4. The Longest Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “8 South Circle Road.” Hux got into the taxi and leaned his head back after giving the driver Rose’s address. He needed to hold her, make sure she was alive, prove that he was alive. Hux needed to get lost in her body, her scent, her entire being and never let go. Hux needed Rose and he wasn’t ashamed to admit it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: I wanted to let everyone know there are a lot of references to bombs and death by bombs as well as deaths of parents in this chapter.

**Four Years Ago**

“Jesus, Ghost, how long does it take to diffuse a _fecking_ bomb?” Hux asked through the comms link to his teammate Ezra Bridger; Code Name: Ghost, Call Sign: Rogue Five. Ezra was the team’s explosives and munitions expert and the one Hux was closest with. Like Hux, Ezra grew up in a war zone even before war had been declared. The thin and porous boarder between Lothal and Kijimi had been a powder keg since time in memorial and the children of the conflict were a special breed of calm and collected due to the volatility of the region, much like those who grew up during the Troubles in Belfast. 

“Hasn’t anyone told you patience is a virtue, General?” Ezra snipped back to his teammate using Hux’s call sign as he worked on a rather complicated device in a London neighborhood. Since leaving Dublin and Rose asleep in her bed, something that Hux only allowed himself to think about in private moments because thinking about her gloriously naked body round his mates felt like disrespecting to her. The memories of that night also had his body reacting in certain ways and in a stressful setting or even in a low-key team meeting, Hux didn’t want to give away anything when it came to this woman. 

Three days had turned into a week, which turned into two and now, a month since he had left her alone in that bed, no way to contact him, no way to contact her, Hux was antsy. London was the closest he had gotten to being close to Rose in the past month having moved around the globe with the team, and he would be damned if he wasn’t going to take the opportunity to get back to her. If only Ezra would hurry the fuck up and dismantle the car bomb, he had been working on for the past three hours. 

Hux watched as Ezra moved through the motions of figuring out the _how_ of the bomb for the first hour through the scope of Millicent on an office building’s rooftop across from where the car sat, the streets having been cleared before the team had been called in. Why Rogue Team was called to deal with the situation Hux still couldn’t figure out, it wasn’t like the Met didn’t have their own EOD team. Why was their team called in, it still didn’t make sense? But it wasn’t for Hux to question, Phasma called the shots and if she said Ezra would go in, he suited up in the beekeeper’s suite and went in, no questions asked. 

“Not right now it’s not!” Hux responded with a small laugh, but Ezra never heard it. He would never hear anything ever again.

The heat of the blast still burned Hux’s face while he was on the plane to Dublin the following day. Small cuts and bruises marred his cheeks and a bump in the back of his head from where he fell backwards from the force of the explosion still throbbed a little, but he didn’t care. None of it mattered.

Ezra was gone.

The plane landed and Hux gathered his things before walking into the terminal. Outside in the taxi line his face stung from the cold wet Irish air he had grown up in, but something about the way it hit his skin felt different. Moving from Belfast to Dublin was almost sacrilegious and if his father had been alive to see it Hux would never had heard the end of it. Lucky for him, Brendol Hux wasn’t alive anymore, something that Armitage Hux wasn’t going to cry over any time soon. Hux had to laugh at the irony though, his mother had been killed by a bomb blast, one that his father had set not realizing, or possibly not even caring that she would be in the building. Years later his father was killed by a car bomb of his own making meant to go off during the March of the Orange parade, but thanks to a faulty timer it went off before Brendol could get out of the blast range. 

As a child growing up in Belfast the threat of bombs was a daily occurrence, The IRA used not only the bombs themselves but the possibility of one hidden under a car, in a postbox or at the footings of a government building to cause panic and fear in the English occupiers; too bad bombs didn’t care what side you were on when they went off. There wasn’t a family in Belfast who hadn’t lost someone in an explosion, either because they took up arms for the cause or they were unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ezra had chosen to put himself in harm’s way and thanks to the fuck ups at the Met not finding the second bomb, Ezra was dead. 

“8 South Circle Road.” Hux got into the taxi and leaned his head back after giving the driver Rose’s address. He needed to hold her, make sure she was alive, prove that he was alive. Hux needed to get lost in her body, her scent, her entire being and never let go. Hux needed Rose and he wasn’t ashamed to admit it.

The drive took less than half an hour and when he pulled up to the red brick apartment building his heart started racing. He rang the buzzer, but no one answered; it was in the middle of the day, would she even be home? If not, he would sit on the stoop and wait until she got home. He’d wait forever if need be. 

“ _Excuse me, but you can’t sit here, go on, get with you.”_ An older woman dressed in a housecoat and slippers walked out of the building with a broom and began yelling at Hux in Irish Gaelic. 

“ _I’m sorry, I’m waiting for someone, maybe you know her, Rose? I don’t know her surname, she’s American?”_

The woman nodded her head as she took Hux in. He must look a fright to her, the injuries from the blast still fresh, his beard not able to be trimmed because of the burns to his skin still healing and his hair had to look like a rat’s nest thanks to not being able to comb it in the back over the swelling on his skull. 

“ _Yes, I know her, the little one...”_

_“Yes, the little one, Rose, is she at work?”_

_“No, she’s gone. Left a month early, said she had no reason to stay so she packed up and left, even gave me the rest for the rent of the month.”_

Hux’s heart stopped; she was gone.

“ _How long ago?”_ Not that it mattered, she was gone what did it matter how long she stayed in town.

“ _A week past, now.”_

A week. He’d missed her by a fucking week.

The older woman looked at him again, the trepidation gone. “ _Why don’t you come in, I’ll put the kettle on.”_ She turned around before he could answer her. Who was he to refuse a cup of tea?

**Present Day**

Ben was standing at the front gate of Base Camp Jarrus when Hux’s truck pulled up. Ben acknowledged his arrival with a chin tip then turned to walk back to HAVOC, the team’s base of operations, leaving Hux to get his gear and catch up. Hux wasn’t stupid, he had blown a mission and given little not no reason as to who or what he encountered. Phasma had every right to sideline him for the rest of the mission or, even it was less likely, throw him off Rogue Team all together. Just as they were about to walk into the small trailer type house HAVOC Ben stopped Hux, taking off his sunglasses to look the man in the eyes.

“Cauliflower?” Ben asked while he chewed on his lower lip waiting for a response. Days after he left Dublin with no word on Rose, Ben had found him drunk and falling off a bar stool in London where Ben was living. Well, Ben didn’t so much find Hux at the bar, so much as his on again off again girlfriend, Rey had called Ben to let him know Hux was in a fit state and he should probably do something before calling the cops. After sobering him up, Hux laid out the entire story of Rose and missing her by a week. The death of Ezra and the loss of Rose had been more than Hux was able to handle. After hearing his sad tale, Ben had promised that if they ever came across Rose, he could use that ridiculous word, the kind of word that wasn’t able to be brought up in normal conversation to let him know she was around. 

“Cauliflower, Ben.”

“Okay.” Ben took a breath as they walked inside. 

“Do you want to explain to me why you aborted a planned mission over some woman?” Phasma asked in a tone that broached no argument.

“Not some woman, Capitan. My woman.” Hux said, while Ben swore under his breath behind him. The rest of the team awkwardly shifting around as Hux stood his ground in front of Phasma. “I saw her through my crosshairs. My _FUCKING_ crosshairs, Captain! If I can see her that way, that means that someone else could. She is out there, unprotected and I will not sit here and wait until someone else takes that shot.” The room was quiet. Hux wasn’t much of a talker, never saying ten words when six would do, and he never raised his voice. Hux knew he was being disrespectful, but fear did something to a man. Fear of losing the only woman you have thought about in four years. The only woman who mattered.

“What if it had been Jannah that I saw, Storm?” Hux mentioning Finn’s wife. “Or Ren, if it were Rey?” Both men tensed at the mention of their significant others. “So, don’t stand there and act like I didn’t make the right choice. I will stand by this decision come hell or high water.”

Hux face felt flush as he spoke but he didn’t care. He knew how to get to that camp and if he needed to commandeer a jeep to go, he would, alone if necessary.

Phasma was quiet for a while, looking at Ben in silent communication; Hux didn’t like it.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

“General, I am going to fill you in on the intel we have received sine you went dark.” Ben turned on the viewing screen and Rose’s camp popped up. It was much larger than he saw from the ridge, almost like two separate camps.

“This is Resistance Camp, set up by Doctors Without Borders a little over a year ago. It is run and operated by Doctor Rose Tico,” Hux’s breath escaped his lungs when her picture came up on the screen. It was taken recently as part of a donation request pamphlet. 

“Dr. Tico, single handedly established this camp after the Militia bombed and gassed the small village of Syndulla following a raid looking for a rebel cell, none were found.” The image changed back to the areal shot of the camp much to Hux’s disappointment.

Resistance is separated into two sections, a medical unit on the north side of the camp, but it’s south side that is the most important. Dr. Tico established a refugee camp for the surviving members of the Syndulla community which includes woman and children and, from what I have gathered it is pretty self-sufficient; subsisting on small donations and internal work by the children and the women living there.”

Hux noticed Ben move from his spot by the screen to be closer to Hux; this wasn’t going to be good.

“What does this have to do with Rose?”

“Turns out you aborting the mission has given up more incentive to look into this camp and those who are affiliated with it.” Phasma continued. “The prisoner handoff we were following, as it turns out that was a ruse. A decoy. A jar of pennies being rattled for us to pay attention to.” Hux stood from his seat on the couch, turning to Ben.

“I ask you again, what the fuck does this have to do with Rose?”

“We intercepted a communication between a Militia leader and a radical group known as Sith,”

Hux was shaking.

“There is a price on the doctor’s head. Two million US dollars.” Phasma said as calmly as possible.

“AND WE ARE HEARING ABOUT THIS NOW?” Hux screamed at his team leader and tossed the water glass that had been set in front of him across the room, the water and shards of glass now an art piece on the opposite wall. Hux was not a violent man, he wasn’t his father. 

“Alright just calm down.” Phasma said over the commotion. “I am sending Rogue Team to Resistance; you have a relationship with the doctor so perhaps we can use this to our advantage.”

Hux didn’t hear anything else that was said past the approval of the team heading out. They had twelve hours to pack everything in one truck, including aid supplies, such as potable water, food rations and medical equipment before they headed out before dawn. These camps were not guarded by troops, but they did have a sense of protection due to their humanitarian nature and approaching the camp in heavy trucks in the middle of the night might send the wrong message. They would leave before the sun and drive the six hours to the camp. 

The truck was packed, Millicent was stripped, cleaned and put back together but still Hux couldn’t sleep. How could he sleep when he knew Rose was in danger? Just as he was about to give up the pretense of sleep, three soft knocks sound on his door.

“Yeah.”

Just as the door opens, a large German Shepard bounded in jumping on the bed where Hux was just sitting, Hux reaching for BB’s ears to give the massive dog a scratch as Poe closeed the door.

“BB wanted to check on you.” Poe said putting the dog’s leash on the table next to him.

“Bb, huh? Well, BB, thanks for checking.” BB licked the back of Hux’s hand and went back to lay at Poe’s feet.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone, man? Why haven’t we met her?” Poe was like a mother hen sometimes, always wanting to know everyone’s business. 

Hux gave Poe the shortened version of his story as he checked and rechecked his ammunitions bag.

Poe was quiet for a moment after the story ended. “Damn. No wonder you freaked out in there.” Hux looked at his friend with a sad smile. “Well, we have her back and we sure as hell have yours so, not to worry, right? As soon as we get there, I’ll have BB scent something of hers, so we know where she is if shit hits the fan.” Poe reached out his hand and Hux took it, clasping his brother’s hand in solidarity and a silent promise to keep this woman alive for his brother. Poe opened the door and BB stood up to have his leash put back on.

“Thanks Poe.”

“We look out for those we love, Finn and Jannah, Ben and Rey, whatever the fuck is going on there, and now you and Rose.”

“Maybe it’s time for you to settle down?” Hux said with a smile.

“Nah, there’s no way I can settle with one person, how could I deprive the world all of this?” Poe gestured at himself making Hux laugh.

“Get the fuck out of my room, arsehole!” Poe laughed as he closed the door behind him and BB leaving Hux alone again.

He looked at his watch again, they had four hours before they headed out. Ten hours all together before he saw Rose again. Ten hours before he could hold her again, wrap himself around her and never let her out of his sight again.

Hux drifted off to sleep thinking about Rose, not for the first time in the last four years. But this time he knew when he woke up, he would be seeing her in the flesh. 

Hux just had to get through the night.


	5. Resistance Is Futile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was a short and fast meeting of lips but what it held was so much more; this kiss was possessive, staking a claim in front of Wexley and everyone else in that tent. “I’ll be back.” Hux said looking deep into her brown and gold speckled eyes and he could tell she was going to retort about how he left before but he put an end to her protests by kissing her again, this time licking the seam of her lips and even giving her a little nip before heading out. Let’s see you top that one, you Limey arsehole!

Rose woke up with the worst crick in her neck and a headache she didn’t need. What little sleep she did get was filled with nightmares of the war coming to the Resistance’s doorstep; a fear that she lived with every day but since seeing that light reflected off the ridge yesterday morning, Rose’s tension had gone on high alert. 

“Rose, get out here now, we have a convoy coming up the road and I don’t recognize the markings.” Kay yelled through the tent’s fabric, sending Rose’s heart into overdrive. 

This was it. This was her dream, nightmare, whatever you wanted to call it, this was her worst fears come to life. Rose jumped out of bed, jammed her feet into her boots, put her red vest indicating she was with an aid organization and ran out into the pink light of dawn. 

“Kay, make sure the nurses have the med tents secured, Snap,” she looked around trying to find the teacher, but he was nowhere to be found. Snap was not the bravest of people, why he thought coming out here to work with refuge children in a war zone was totally beyond Rose. “tower of Jell-O, that one.” Rose swore under her breath as she looked around for other volunteers, telling them to secure the women and children and to get Snap out of whatever tent he was hiding in; the Militia men tended to respond better when Rose had a man beside her, she hated it, but as a very small woman she was easily overpowered. Snap was a fool and useless in most cases, but he was still over six-feet tall, so he had something going for him at least, Rose thought.

Rose ran to the entry of the main camp, shouting orders to the others securing the medical and refugee sections that made up Resistance. She spent over a year building this place as a protected and safe space for the people who came here, she was not losing it today, no matter who was at the fucking the gates. The entry point to the camp had a twofold security measure in place, two separate checkpoints with United Nations peacekeepers at the first entry point and Doctor’s Without Boarders volunteers at the second. Rose watched as the mystery truck drove past the first checkpoint and heading towards the second. The second checkpoint wasn’t really necessary for security, their main job was to check manifests and give directions within the compound. 

As the truck came closer Rose blocked her eyes from the headlights pointed in her direction, all while trying to place the markings on the side of the truck. Rose knew she had seen it before, a broken hexagon surrounding a circle with sharp points directed into the center, she just couldn’t place. But as the trucks got closer, the symbol didn’t trigger any panic, as menacing as the symbol seemed, Rose had a softness in her mind when she saw it. Strange.

The trucks came to a stop not far from her and Rose was almost taken aback by the size of the man stepping out of the driver’s seat of the front vehicle. Rose was not a tall woman, just over five feet, she was the definition of petite, man walking towards, on the other hand, that man was the size of a redwood tree and should have startled her, but, again, she didn’t feel nervous by his presence. Even under his light protective gear, the man looked to be friendly, a gentle giant one might say. The woman exiting the same vehicle, on the other hand gave off a sense of authority. Rose had heard the term _statuesque_ branded about before, the blond woman walking towards her is who the word for invented for.

“Doctor Rose Tico?” The woman asked, holding out her hand. “My name is Gwen Phasma, this is Ben Solo, I would like to have a word, if you don’t mind.” Distantly, Rose heard the other truck’s doors open and close, the sound of soft talking and gear being unpacked, but she was focused on the man and woman standing in front of her.

“I’m sorry, but who are you, exactly?” It was then she looked around the woman speaking after hearing a small scuffle by the other truck getting louder. Rose saw the back of two men, one with a large dog, trying to hold back another man. Did she just see a flash of ginger hair? Rose laughed to herself, if she didn’t know any better…

“Ben…” Rose heard Gwen speak to the man next to her giving him a small nod. Ben let out a quick, high pitched whistle and the two men separated reveling the man they had been attempting to hold back. 

Rose stopped breathing.

This can’t be right, Rose tried to remind herself she didn’t sleep well last night, that she was hungry and hadn’t had coffee and her low blood sugar was effecting her cognitive functions, but they were just excuses; excuses Rose kept telling herself because the man coming towards her in a determined stride couldn’t be real. He was tanner then she remembered him being, perhaps a little more filled out in the arms and chest, his hair was longer and beard fuller but there was no mistaking it.

“Armitage?” It was whispered, a prayer for a god she didn’t think she really believed in. “Is it really you?” Rose didn’t know how she ended up in his arms but there she was, wrapped in his embrace as if no time had passed, four years being nothing but a blip.

One night had changed her entire life. One night with a stranger had changed the way she did everything. Since leaving Dublin and being surrounded by militaries from all over the globe, and every time she heard the British contingent were maneuvered towards the front lines, Rose spent more time than she was comfortable with admitting asking around about her solider, the man who she fell in love with in a span of a few hours. As she held on, Rose inhaled his scent, the clean skin smelled like the desert grasses after a heavy rain, a scent she had always equated with Armitage Hux. Rose wanted to weep for the joy, Armitage not only being here but being real, not a figment of her imagination she had begun telling herself he must have been. How could the memory of him be real? No one was that perfect.

But he had left her. Had left her with no way of contact, no way to reach out and see he was alive.

“Rose.” Was said into her hair as his lips came down on the top of her head, his arms wrapping tighter around her.

Rose buried her face into his chest and breathed him in again; she was actually holding him. Her head swam with thoughts of love and lust, fear and anger at being left behind with no trace of him.

“Hux we need to get under cover.” Rose heard a voice somewhere in the distance but couldn’t place it. Was that the big man who Gwen called Ben? Did it matter?

“Rose?” Snap cut through the haze of far too much feeling drifting through Rose’s brain. “Rose what’s going on?” Rose backed away from the warmth of Armitage’s body turning to look at the new person joining their meet and greet. 

“Who’s this asshole?” Rose heard coming from the direction of Armitage’s teammates along with hushed snickering in response.

“Please, Doctor Tico, it is imperative we speak.” Gwen spoke again, giving Rose what she supposed was meant to be a kind expression, but Rose could tell this woman was pained, stressed and over whatever bull shit what happening behind her. 

“Umm, yes, we can go into the administrative tent, but I have to ask you to leave your weapons here. I don’t allow any weapons into the camp. We have refugees, children at this camp and we have promised them they would feel safe.”

Rose watched as Gwen, Ben and Armitage looked at each other, none of them liking the idea of being stripped of weapons. After a moment’s thought, Gwen let out a sigh and nodded towards Rose. “Finn stay with the trucks and start unloading the gear and packages. Poe take BB on a walk-about, if he scents anything he doesn’t like, even if it’s a dead rat, tell me immediately. Ben, Hux you’re with me.” Gwen began walking in the direction Rose had indicated for their meeting while Armitage and Ben began unpacking their weapons. Rose was shocked to see just how strapped they were but seeing Armitage unsheathing a large knife had Rose feeling something low in her belly. _Calm down_. she said to herself, or more to her suddenly pulsing lower extremities. That was the last thing she needed.

Rose turned on her heel to catch up with the others. Snap had taken charge of showing Gwen where the admin tent was, and Rose hoped it had been cleaned up since the small drinks gathering, they had a few nights before. Rose shuck the image of that party; it was the last time she and Snap had fooled around. Even though she knew it was a bad idea at the time she none the less ended up sneaking out Snap’s tent after he had fallen asleep. Hey, a girl needs to release pressure from time to time, and despite Kay’s offers to help her with that, she had wanted a cock to ease her tensions; hindsight, maybe she should have gone to Kay’s tent.

Shaking off that unwanted memory, Rose rushed into the tent and tried to tidy up the best she could. They didn’t use this tent very often, meeting around the canteen or in each other’s quarters; this room was for when the top brass came, or they had a social gathering with the entire team. Gwen looked around at the table in the center of the room and then at the small media set up they had which they never really used. Rose watched as Ben and Armitage walked in after her now totally out of his protective gear. He wasn’t as broad chested as Ben was but what he had filled out the dark olive t-shirt he was wearing nicely. Rose had to stop herself from fanning her face at the thought.

Once Key entered the tent and introductions were made they all found seats around the table; Gwen and Ben had remained standing at the front by the media station, Ben working a laptop connection while Gwen and Armitage spoke in a strange coded language, the words HAVOC, Overwatch being the most recognizable, not that Rose even understood what they meant. Rose also noticed she began to call Armitage and Ben by code names, Ren for Ben and General for Armitage. Kay sat next to Rose and began asking questions, but she had no clue what was being asked; Armitage had moved from behind her to the front when Ben was finished with the laptop.

“Doctor Tico, as I said before, my name is Gwen Phasma, you might hear my men call me Wolf or Capitan, I am the head of a Tier-One Elite group of operators called Rogue Team. We are not officiated with any country or military organization, we work primarily off the grid,”

“Mercenaries?” Rose heard Snap ask with disgust in his voice.

“No, Mr. Wexley, we are an elite group of operators called in when the job is too dangerous for groups like Delta Force, SEALs or even British SAS.” Gwen continued only a little annoyed at the man in front of her. “We work around the world but as you can probably imagine a great deal of our work the past few years have taken place in Lothal during this conflict. The team’s leader is Ben Solo, he also goes by Ren or Rogue One. Armitage, who you know, Doctor, goes by General and Rogue Four. The other two are Poe Dameron and Finn Johnson. Poe is our K9 handler, the dog you saw with him is named Beelzebub, or BB. Finn might come in handy around here, he is a field medic so if you need another set of hands, please know he is at your disposal.”

Rose nodded trying not to look at Armitage. He was a super solider of some kind and Rose was having a hard time reconciling how soft he was with her to how hard he must be to survive in that kind of world. 

“We have also brought supplies with us; medical supplies, food and water, even toys for the children. Think of them as a peace offering.” She said with a smile. 

“This all great, and thank you for the supplies, but why are you here? We are a medical refugee camp. We aren’t part of any military complex on the ground.” Rose watched as Gwen, Ben and Armitage all shifted uneasily.

“You’re correct. You are not part of the military complex. But this fact doesn’t seem to matter.” That’s when Gwen said the words that made Rose sick to her stomach.

“In the last 48 hours we have come across a communication indicating that there will be an attempt made on your life, Doctor. Tico.” Rose looked at Armitage who went as still as a statue, and white as one too. She felt Kay’s hand grab hers and Snap wrap his arm around her shoulders, but Rose never looked away from Armitage. Rose could see he was fighting with himself, wanting to come to her, hold her but needing to maintain a sense of decorum. He was the truest definition of professionalism Rose had ever seen. And she hated it.

***

He was going to fucking kill Snap Wexley if he didn’t get his _fecking_ British hands off Rose. Hux watched as the doughy man beside Rose attempted to comfort her and the only thing that kept Hux sane was that she didn’t seem to melt into his embrace, not the way she had with him. Fuck, Hux could still feel her holding onto him like they hadn’t spent any time apart. Like the last four year had been nothing but a snap of the fingers and Hux itched to have her in his arms again. She had felt leaner than the last time he held her, but time in the desert living on stress and rations was not exactly the healthiest of diets. She still looked amazing, Hux had to admit to himself, her hair was long and thick, he couldn’t wait to run his fingers through it while she came apart in his arms. _God damnit, Armitage_ , _keep it together. Last thing this room needs is your erection making itself known._

As if Ben had heard his thoughts, Hux got elbowed in the side bringing Hux back to the issues at hand. 

“Wolf, this is Pilot, come in.” Hux heard over the earpiece Poe calling with a report.

“Pilot, go ahead.”

“Wolf, we have something that I think General should come out and take a look at, could be nothing but could be the remnants of a sniper’s nest. And it’s nowhere close to where Overwatch was before mission abort.”

The war raging inside Hux’s head was defining; leave the tent to check on a possible sniper’s nest that could have been set up to hurt Rose, or disobey in order to keep an eye on this _fecking spanner_ who has his hands on his… Ben came into view before he could finish the thought. As if he were a mind reader, Ben leaned in and whispered the only thing that would have made Hux actually leave the tent. “I know what you’re thinking, but if you kill him now, you won’t gain any points with anyone. Go check out Pilot’s spot and I will keep an eye on things here.” Hux took another look at the _git_ sitting next to Rose then at his team leader. “I won’t let anything happen to her.” Hux looked at Ben again and let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding in. Ben gave him a nod and moved back to facing the group. 

What Hux did next flew in the face of everything he knew he shouldn’t do, but he felt if he didn’t, he would have lost his nerve. Walking over to where Rose sat, he moved between her and Snap, leaned down and kissed her deep and meaningfully. It was a short and fast meeting of lips but what it held was so much more; this kiss was possessive, staking a claim in front of Wexley and everyone else in that tent. “I’ll be back.” Hux said looking deep into her brown and gold speckled eyes and he could tell she was going to retort about how he left before but he put an end to her protests by kissing her again, this time licking the seam of her lips and even giving her a little nip before heading out. _Let’s see you top that one, you Limey arsehole!_ Hux said to himself giving an evil smile to Ben as he left.

***

Rose went back to her tent hours later, the headache she had woken up with now a full-blown migraine. She took some aspirin and laid on her cot, numb from the day’s events. The early morning convoy had been a mess, but it hadn’t been the first time she had to deal with things of this nature; it was the fighting season, they were always getting new wounded at all hours of the day and night. But seeing Armitage was not what she thought her day would entail no matter how many times she had fantasized about it. Normally her imagination had him coming into the camp like _Officer and a Gentleman_ , picking her up and carrying her away. Never did she think he would show up and tell her she was marked for death. 

Rose took in a shaky breath at the thought, who would want her dead? And why? She was no one, she was just a doctor with no real power; she didn’t turn anyone away from the medical tents, if you were wounded and in need of medical attention, it didn’t matter what side you were on. So why want her dead?

But as head spinning as the threat on her life was, the real mind fuck was Armitage. Rose could still feel his mouth on hers, his tongue licking at the seam of her lips and that almost painful nip as he left the tent…

That feeling low in her belly was back just at the thought of his kiss. 

**_Knock Knock Knock_ **

Kaydel had taken over her duties for the night, allowing her to have time to process everything that had happened in the past 12 hours. She hadn’t seen Armitage since he left the tent, and it’s not like her tent was labeled as hers. That left the only person she did not want to see standing at the other side of her door.

“Please, Snap, I don’t want to talk, I want to be left alone.”

There was no answer. Instead her door opened, and Armitage walked in, all tall, muscular and ever so handsome.

“I wanted to see you were okay.” Rose froze on her bed as he walked in with a plate of food. Along with supplies for the camps they also brought food, not just nutritional milk and Kyber butter but real food. The plate he held in his hand was still steaming and smelled heavenly. “I hope you don’t mind, but I made you a plate. Poe is an ass hole, but he knows his way around a grill.” Armitage turned to put the plate on her small desk then turned back with a smile; Rose was lost. She had so many questions, so many things to say to this man who stood in her tent but none of it mattered. Not one damn thing while he was so close to her. She wanted to ask where he went, why he didn’t leave a forwarding address or hell a number! Was he looking for her the way she looked for him? Was he okay? Was he safe?

All these questions ran through her head but none of them were voiced. Instead she walked up to him and without one word she pulled on the scarf he wore around his neck, the same green as his shirt, and took possession of his mouth. This wasn’t a tentative kiss, not one asking permission; this kiss was one of lustful, carnal need. Rose needed this man, had needed him from the moment she woke up four years ago to an empty bed hoping for a round of hot steamy pre-coffee morning sex that never came. 

The kiss, which Rose started, was quickly taken over by Armitage, his tongue thrusting into her mouth, teeth clashing together as his hands began to roam roughly over her body, Rose mimicking every action on his. She pulled his shirt out of the pants they were tucked into and began a torturous exploration of his softly defined abs and chest, smiling to herself as she felt the V shaped hip bones she admired before. 

Armitage broke the kiss to pull his shirt off and then began to unbutton her shirt with deft fingers, tugging it off her arms as soon as it was fully opened. Rose pulled away, crossing her arms over her chest and taking the sports bra off, and smiling at Armitage ‘s eyes going as big as saucers. 

“Fuck, Rose I forgot how beautiful your tits are.” He bent down to her height and took on of her hardened nipples into his mouth, sucking and biting lightly as his hand gave attention to the other one. Rose threaded her fingers into his hair and felt herself on the verge of coming just from his mouth. It was like this before, how he could make her come simply by using his mouth. But rose remembered as much as she loved his mouth, his cock was even better.

“Fuck me, Armitage.” Rose said in a whisper with her head thrown back, lost in desire.

Armitage looked at her from the level of her chest and let go of her nipple with a _pop_ from his mouth and smiled. “Anything for you, _Louv_ ” He stood up to his full height and backed her towards the bed, letting her sit down. He stood in front of her and relieved himself of his pants, reviling his black boxer briefs, his impressive erection straining behind the soft cotton. Armitage moved to the edge of the bed, after unlacing and pulling off her boots, Armitage unbuttoned Rose’s cargo pants and peeled them down her legs tossing them to the side with his own. 

Rose watched as he pulled his own underwear off and couldn’t help but smile at the ginger pubic hair that dusted the base of his cock. The last time they had been together the room had been dark, and she hadn’t been able to see if he was in fact a real ginger. She was happy to report that he was. 

“What are you smiling about?” He asked as he took the condom, she offered him, rolling it on from tip to base.

“I didn’t get to see much of our body last time. I’m smiling about the fact that my imagination had nothing on the real thing.”

Armitage leaned down and kissed her again just as soft and possessive as the one from the tent earlier that morning. She felt her panties being slid down her legs and Armitage settling between them as he kept most of his weight off of her the best he could.

“Rose I…” He said but she stopped him with a deep kiss. She didn’t want words right now. All Rose wanted right was his body moving inside hers. Thankfully he took this as a sign to continue, reaching down and lifting her leg behind the knee and plunging into the heated depths of her drenched sex. 

“Oh fuck, Armitage”

“Fuck, _Louv_ you’re still perfect.”

It took a moment for him to begin moving, first with slow and deep thrusts and then with hard and fast pitoning of his hips. It didn’t take long for all words to stop as he began fucking her in earnest. With every thrust of his hips in, the friction against her clit pushed her closer and closer to the cliff’s edge of a cataclysmic orgasm. Rose’s back bowed off the bed when she finally succumbed to her orgasm and with every aftershock, she felt herself pulse around Armitage’s cock still thrusting deep inside her body only to have him collapse after a few more deep thrusts. 

They both laid there, Armitage on top of her, both sweaty and out of breath, the scent of sex lingering in the air. Like deja’vu, Hux pulled out of her, walked to the corner where the waist paper basket was to dispose of the condom, then came back with a soft damp cloth to clean where they had been joined moments ago. Once she was clean and the towel tossed to the side, he walked back to the plate of food and brought it over to her.

“It’s cute you think I can do anything but sleep after that.” Rose said covering her rapidly cooling body with the blanket as he sat on the bed with her, still as naked as the day he was born.

“Lovely as that compliment is, you can sleep after you eat.” Rose looked at him in disbelief. He thought to give her orders like he was ruler over her?”

“I’m sorry?” But rose was stopped by a fork full of chicken placed inside her mouth.

“You can yell at me all you want, _Louv_ but you will eat first.”

She wanted to be mad. She wanted to toss the food in his face and tell him to leave. The last thing she needed or wanted was a man coming in here and telling her what to do and how to live. But when he fed her, moved the food around on the plate and tried to find what he thought was the best combination for a bite, Rose couldn’t help but fall even more in love with him. He had disarmed her that night at the reception just as easily, Rose remembered with a smile. 

He fed her every single morsel of food off the plate, made sure she drank the entire liter of water, not giving a damn that she would have to pee three times that night, then made love to her again before both of them fall asleep in each other’s arms. Tomorrow they would have words. They would discuss what his team was planning to do to protect her and her camp. But tonight? Tonight, she would let him hold her as she slept. And Rose prayed he would be there when she woke up.

***

Poe and Finn had been outside the Doctor’s tent since Hux had entered after dinner, close enough to protect the pair inside, but far enough away not to hear the noises coming from the reunited couple. Poe didn’t need to know what Hux sounded like when he came, they weren’t that close! Finn handed Poe a beer and he poured some of it into the water dish at his feet for BB giving him a scratch behind the ears. 

“We have company.” Finn said as they both saw the teacher walking towards Rose’s tent. This dude just couldn’t take a hint, could he?

Poe made a soft noise which made BB stand and move in front of them at attention making Wexley stop in his tracks.

“Hey, my man, what can we do for you?” Poe said giving BB’s leash slack but not enough for the dog to reach the unwanted intruder.

“Oh, umm, I noticed Rose wasn’t at dinner, and I know she was having a shit day, I thought I would bring her food.” Snap stuttered trying to back away from the dog.

“Aww that’s sweet, ain’t it Finn?”

“Very sweet.” Finn chimed in.

“Rose is a little…” Just then a soft laugh came from inside the tent and then the light went out making Poe’s point better than he could with words.

“She’s a little busy right now.” Finn spoke bringing the beer bottle to his lips. 

“We will let her know you came by.” Poe said letting BB a little closer to him making him turn around and walking back to his own area. 

“Something about that dude I don’t like.” Poe said as he brought BB back to his feet giving him a toy to play with as a treat for scaring off Wexley. 

“I think he’s just smarmy, to be honest. Posh boarding school accented bastards like that are just slimy like that.” Finn said opening up another beer for himself. Poe liked that Finn was a street kid from London like he was one from East LA. Street. Street kids stuck together, and no one had Poe’s back like Finn did. Poe finished his beer and relaxed more in his chair. They would go to their own tent but not until they knew Hux and his woman were settled, they would stay outside. 

“Yeah, probably.” But Poe wasn’t convinced. He would keep an eye on this guy. He owed it to Hux to keep him and his doctor protected. Even from posh teachers with eyes for Rose. 

  
  



	6. The Desert Flower

The sun was coming up over the ridge as Dr. Kaydel Connix walked from the medical area to the barracks where her tent was located. The night shift hadn’t been too bad for her, no new patients, which she was very happy about, and no problems with the patients they did have still in the recovery tents. As she moved through the semi-permanent tents, Kaydel’s mind began to wonder to what she needed to jot down for her report for Rose on the night’s events in the hospital wing. After a quick shower and back in the comfort of her own tent, comfort being a relative term, she sat on her cot with a bottle of water and got to work. 

By the time she was finished with the report, the sun was much higher in the sky and Kay laid back on her cot, dreaming about the kind sized bed she had waiting for her in Chicago. Her room at Resistance were actually nicer than the last tour she had done with Doctors Without Borders in central Africa, the cot and blanket were both perfectly serviceable, but the vents in the tent fabric walls let a nice breeze through allowing her to sleep during the day.

She had almost drifted off when she heard the trucks moving through the camp and a strong female voice drifting over the noise. Normally, after a long night shift, Kay was able to sleep right through the commotion of the day, truck, people, and children playing all becoming white noise after a while. But the new voices, especially the voice of the blond commander that brought the elite ops team with her had tipped her fancy. 

Kay rolled off her cot, put her boots back on and moved through the camp in the direction of the commotion; she was second in command on base and she had a right to know what was happening.

_And wouldn’t that gorgous commander be just the one to fill her in on the day’s activities?_

Kay thought to herself. 

Before she left Chicago over a year ago, she had ended things with her partner of five years. Her new tour in Lothal wasn’t the reason for the breakup, but it had given Kay a hard reason to end things before heading overseas. She had loved Jess with all her heart, but as she spent more and more time with DWB, she found that she missed Jess less and less. It wasn’t fair to keep the other woman at home when she deserved to be with someone who would give her everything she deserved. Kay still kept in touch with Jess, they had been close friends for years before they were romantically involved, and wasn’t it just like lesbians to stay friends with their ex’s? Last, she had heard, Jess had received a job offer in Seattle and Kay couldn’t be happier for her. 

As moved closer to the trucks she saw Rose’s man walking towards her holding two mugs and a thermos and had the biggest smile on his face.

“Good morning, Doctor.” He said with a smile. Armitage, as Rose called him and Hux to everyone else, Kay liked how the man didn’t shy away from his feelings where Rose had been concerned, the kiss he had given her in the media tent the day before had melted even her cold lesbian heart.

“And a good morning to you too, Lieutenant.” She shaded her eyes from the early morning sun as she looked at him. 

“Hux, please.” He said as he shifted so it was, he who faced the sun. Strange, that something so small cold ender him to her even more. 

“Then you must call me Kay.” She answered with a smile. “I see you have found our hot brown water supply.” Referring to the thing they drank in lieu of coffee which was a luxury they just couldn’t afford. The Lothal roasted tree nut they received ground with their rations did the trick, if you didn’t think about it too much. “Careful, it’s worse than it smells.”

Hux looked at the thermos and then back at Kay, smiling.

“Oh no, this is actual coffee. We got a list of the normal rations Resistance received and nowhere did it say coffee, so we made sure you got an abundant supply of the stuff. I also put some good strong Irish tea in there as well, in case you’re feeling a bit cheeky.”

“Coffee? Like, REAL coffee?” She said dumbstruck at what he had just said to her.

“You’re bringing Rose Tico coffee in bed?” Hux smiled at the name and Kay melted even more for this man. While she had been having her tryst with Snap, Rose was never truly happy; Snap scratched an itch Rose had and that was it. 

“She’s going to love you.”

“That’s the plan, Kay.” He said with a wink and a soft nudge to her arm before heading back to Rose’s tent with a bounce in his step. 

“Way to go Rose.” Kay said to the receding back of the man she knew Rose loved. 

Kay turned in the direction of the mess tent and bolted towards the dark perfection that was real coffee. The tent was a buzz of activity; the new recruits she had yet to learn names of, and since she was leaving in a week, she couldn’t think of a reason to try. The old volunteers moving past each other, those going off the night shift, like Kay, and those coming on for the day. This was her favorite time of day, everyone coming together to join in the comradery of being together; it’s what she would miss the most, Kay thought as she got in line.

“Why hello there.” The unfamiliar voice came from behind her. Kay turned around and was face to face with one of the operators that had come with Hux, what was this one’s name? It was strange, not that she had room to talk. 

“Poe.” He said holding out his hand. “Poe Dameron. 38 years old, pieces, enjoys long walks on the beach…” Oh, so he wanted to play the introduction game, did he?

“Doctor Kaydel Connix, 32, Gemini, I enjoy a good bourbon and a night out to a jazz club.” Poe’s eyebrows went into his hairline at her response. “And, sadly for you, gay as a four-dollar bill.” Kay had to laugh at the look on his face, the utter defeat at her words.

“All the good one, I swear.” He reached past her and got a mug for his coffee, pouring the dark brew and then handing it to her.

“Then I offer you this cup of coffee in plutonic friendship.” Me motioned to the tables that people were already milling around as she took the offered mug, both heading in the direction of the seats. Just as the two sat down, the door to the mess tent opened the tall leader and the woman they had come with. Why couldn’t Kay remember her name, she really needed to get her memory checked when she got back state side.

“So, Poe, what can you tell me about your commander.” She leaned across the table in order to whisper. 

“Ben? He’s great. Bit stuck up but he’s great at what he does. Has a girl in London, whether or not Rey knows she’s his girl still stands to be proven,” Poe said with a small laugh. “Although, I would have figured he might have a little too much penis for you to be interested.” Poe took a drink from his own cup, looking at Kay over the rim.

“Oh, you’re a funny man, you like jokes.” Kay smiled at his glee at messing with her. Kay didn’t have brothers, but she figured if she did, they would probably be like Poe, and Kay didn’t hate that idea.

“I meant the other commander, punk.”

His full eyebrows went back into his hairline and staid for a while. Poe turned around and looked at the two in line for coffee. 

“Her name is Phasma, well, Gwen.” He corrected himself giving Kay the woman’s first name and not a call sign.

“She is former British Forces, she’s a tough nut, but she’s fair and insanely good at her job.” He took another sip from his mug as he thought of more things to tell Kay.

“Oh, she has a cat. Big fluffy white thing, gets fur all over the place.” Poe took a deep breath as Kay and Gwen made eye contact from across the tent. 

“But I gotta tell ya, Kay, I don’t know what direction her flag flies.”

Kay looked at the woman who gave her a small smile before looking back at her companion, giving him all of her attention yet aging.

She got up from where she was sitting and moved to put her cup in the sink to be washed. She liked this guy, she felt that he would be interesting and fun member of the team while she was still at Resistance. But she really liked Gwen. It may just be a week, but she was going to get to know this woman better if it killed her.

“Mine.” She gave him a smile and wink before heading back to her tent. The last week of her tour was going to be fun. 

***

When Hux had woken up before dawn, Rose had been draped across his chest, her curtain of ebony hair was spread out like a blanket; Hux had never felt so at ease in his life. She was stirred awake when he began petting her back, up and down her spine from the base of her neck to the cleft of her rear. Hux remembered how she began to kiss his bare chest, causing his cock to spring to life. He took her again in the pre-dawn hours, this time their joining had not been the rough and desperate connection as it had before when he walked into her tent, but rather slow and passionate lovemaking. 

Hux had thought when he entered the tent holding a plate of food as a peace offering, she would toss him out, if he had luck on his side perhaps, she would at least talk with him. He never hoped that she would be just as desperate as he had been for her. 

Rose had fallen back asleep leaving Hux to do some things outside of her tent that required his attention. In the hour he was gone, Hux met with Phasma and Ben to see if they had any more information on who put the price on his woman’s head. Then, after taking a quick shower Hux grabbed some coffee from the mess tent and headed back to the tent where hopefully a still sleeping Rose remained. 

The way she had passed out, together with the dark marks under her eyes, Hux could tell she hadn’t been sleeping. Hux wanted to care for her, protect her, shelter her from the horrors of war; although something told him that if he tried to do any one of those things, she would not thank him for it. 

His Rose was a desert flower, the ones which grow in the hardest conditions are always the most beautiful of blooms.

But when Hux walked into the tent he was greeted with a empty space. 

“Rose?” He called out, even though it was a single room, not a lot of places for her to be hidden. For a moment, Hux panicked, what if she were in danger? Taken from him after they had just found each other?

“RoRo!” A small child’s voice cut through his panic making him run in the sounds’ direction. 

“Rose?” He called out as he jogged, still holding the thermos of coffee and cups. Hux saw her then, turning the corner around the tent his heart began beating again in a rhythm that was not going to kill him.

Rose was standing with her back to him holding a small child, the same he has seen her with through his scope a few days ago, laughing as she spun her around. Rose stopped when she saw Hux, her smiling face melting into worry at what could only be his fearful expression. Hux wanted to drop the coffee and mugs to the ground and run to her, hold her again, make sure she was, in fact, safe. Again, though he though back to his desert flower, how she thrives in adversity. 

“What? What is it?” Hux watched as she put the child down and walked to him.

“Nothing. I just wasn’t expecting you to be up and out already. You looked like you needed the sleep.” Hux reached out, cupping her face and almost growled in satisfaction when she leaned into his touch. 

“I play with the kids before my shift, Bean came to say good morning since I didn’t see her last night.” Rose’s face lit out at the mentioned of Sabine. She reached behind her, turning as she did so towards the too small child hiding behind her legs.

“Sabine, this is my very good friend Armitage. He’s here to help us. Can you say hello?” Hux watched as the biggest brown eyes peered at him. 

In his time in the military, Irish Branch and then Rogue Team, Hux never allowed himself to think of the innocents he was protecting. If he thought of them as induvials, the pressure to save them all would be too great. When he looked through his scope, Hux had to think about the person he was taking out; the person who would, if given the chance, harm innocents like this small girl. He couldn’t think of the families the death of that one person may be leaving behind, but rather the countless ones he would be saving

Hux crouched down and smiled at the little girl. 

_“Hello, Sabine. It is so lovely to meet you.”_

In his training Hux had taken many language classes, Lothan was one of the ones he had chosen, figuring it would be helpful.

“Armitage, you speak Lothan?” Rose asked, rather impressed making Hux want to puff out his chest.

“I find it comes in helpful when stationed here for long periods of time.” In the distance the sound of a drone caught his attention and Hux was reminded exactly when he was in this camp.

“We need to get undercover. It’s not safe for you to be outside for long periods.” Hux handed the thermos and mugs to Rose, then reached down and picked up the little girl. 

***

_“Do you have school today, Sabine?”_

Rose heard Hux say in Lothan as they walked towards the main living quarters where the school and refugee tents were. As if she needed another reason to want to drop her panties for this man. He can’t be real, he can’t really be here, speaking with Sabine in her native tongue, bringing her coffee and fucking her just right so she passed out each time. 

_Get yourself together, Rose!_ She said to herself while shaking her head.

“Yes, they have school, Snap should be announcing start of class pretty soon.” They walked into the tent where the children were having their breakfast. Rose grabbed Sabine’s milk and sandwich as well an apple that had been part of the supply cargo Hux’s team had brought. She wondered if she could ask for a regular shipment for when after the team left Resistance. 

“Snap? That _feckin’_ idiot.” Hux said as Sabine began eating her breakfast.

“Hey, she may not be able to speak it well, but she does understand English!.” Rose said in a whisper trying to keep it from Sabine’s impressionable ears.

“Well then we are in luck because that was Irish, so I think we are safe.” He said, leaning in to kiss the worry off her face.

“I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.” Rose said looking at her watch.

He laughed as he took his knife out to slice the apple Rose had grabbed, cutting it into wedges for Sabine to eat on a little easier. Rose watched him with the little girl who had become so important to her; Rose sometimes forgot what her voice sounded like because she spoke so little to her or anyone else at the camp, but with Armitage, it was like watching a brand new Bean; Rose wanted to weep with joy.

Sabine had just finished her apple and milk when Snap walked in to call the children into their lessons. Rose didn’t want to feel badly for how things had gone with the other man, but he was never going to be more to her than a warm body, something to pass the time with. Rose saw when Snap noticed Sabine in Armitage’s lap, laughing and talking and she didn’t want a problem between the two men. She wasn’t stupid, she knew in a battle between the teacher and solider, there was no question as who would win. 

“Ok Bean, time for your lessons.” Snap walked over and held out his hand for the little girl. Rose hated when he used her nick name, it didn’t seem genuine, but rather like he was trying to show he was one of them. Instead it came off as smarmy, and very off putting. 

_“Will you come to lessons with me, Hux?”_ Rose heard Sabine ask Armitage making her smile, while Snap cleared his throat annoyedly.

_“I can’t, love, I have work I have to do, but I will be happy to hear all about it later. Ok? Now go off with this_ Muppet _and me and RoRo will see you later at dinner.”_ Rose knew Snap didn’t speak Lothan, at least not enough to have understood half of what Armitage had just said to her. Rose, on the other hand, had to stifle a small giggle.

She watched as Sabine crawled off Armitage’s lap and ran with her friends to the school tent, happier than Rose had ever seen. 

“I thought we had decided that she would only be speaking in English?” She heard Snap say, shattering her moment.

“How about you shut your _feckin’_ mouth and let the traumatized little girl do what she wants.”

Rose stepped between the two; this escalated quickly.

“Alright, you two.” She turned to face Snap trying not to let the fact that Armitage’s hand moved to her hip. “Yes, your right, she should be working on her English, but this was the most I had ever heard Bean speak and I guess I just wanted her to have a joyful moment.” Snap growled a little in frustration and then left the tent. She was going to have a long talk with him about how much things had changed. If she were honest with herself, she had needed to have this conversation with Snap Wexley for a while now; Armitage showing up, changing everything, just made it even more necessary. Once the door to the children’s mess tent was closer the turned around on Armitage trying hard to melt at his cheeky smile.

“And you!” She pointed a finger directed into Armitage’s chest. “You can’t antagonize him like that. He’s the only teacher we have and he’s really very good.”

Armitage’s hand went back to her hips, pulling Rose closer to him making it almost impossible for her to pull two thoughts together, let alone scold him.

“He’s just mad that he can’t have you anymore.”

Rose looked at him with unease, she didn’t feel badly about sleeping with Snap, she just didn’t want Armitage to know about it.

“Oh please, _Luove_ , it’s written all over his face,” he tipped his chin at the now closed door.

“And yours.” Rose looked away a little embarrassed.

“I don’t blame you, I’m not innocent either. I thought I’d never see you again and I tried to fill my bed with others hoping it would fill the hole left that morning.” 

“Ugh you can’t say things like that to me, I want to be mad at you!” Rose leaned in and wrapped her arms around him.

He was really here. 

Armitage Hux was really holding her and no matter what happened, they had found each other if only for a few moments.

“We really need to talk, Armitage. Like have a real conversation.” Rose looked at him with pleading eyes, hoping, begging him to take her need to talk seriously.

“Yes, I know, Pet. Tonight. I promise.”

Rose nodded and began pulling away from his warmth, but he held tighter, reaching for her, holding her chin in his soft yet war worn hands.

“I need something from you today.” He said, the depth of his green eyes going darker, like a storm was brewing over the prairie grasses she had grown up with in Nebraska.

“Anything, Armitage.” She thought for sure he was going to lean down, take her mouth in a time altering kiss. but instead his face became serious, almost scared, the fear a mask over his beautiful features.

“I need you to stay inside today. Please, Rose. Don’t go outside for long periods of time. I want Poe and BB to stay with you as much as possible. I know BB can’t go into the hospital but please, any other time.”

His voice was different when he spoke to her, it was colder, and would hold no argument. But Rose also heard the fear and apprehension about leaving her alone. Rose took a deep breath and nodded her acceptance to his request. 

“Okay.” Hux moved his hand from under her chin to the back of her head, pressing it into his chest, holding her tighter for a moment. 

“I will be back before dinner time. If you need anything tell Poe and he will radio me, alright.” His smile didn’t quite reach his eyes, but the softness he always had with her was still present. Maybe this was just how he compartmentalized when he had to do things that scared him. Rose hoped he would be around long enough to find out.

***

Only after meeting with Poe and allowing BB catch her scent, did Hux feel comfortable leaving Rose alone to go on his patrols. These were normally his favorite part of a new op; learning the lay of the land, seeing how the wind moved through the terrain was always something that kept his interest. Now, however, all he could do was think about the camp, Rose and that little girl. 

“Never thought of you as the father type, Hux. I liked it.” Finn said as they walked through the rocky terrain a few kilometers away from Resistance. Hours had past and Hux was anxious to get back, to see for himself that Rose was safe. He knew if anything didn’t smell right Poe would tell him right away, but that didn’t seem to matter to his brain.

“Is it that strange to think about?” Hux asked his friend. Finn was married with a kid of his own, how Jennah and Max dealt with his being absent for large chunks out of the year, Hux didn’t know. 

“Can I ask you something Finn?” Hux asked as they came to a spot on a cliff. Hux took out his scope and tried to gage if this could be a possible nesting spot for a sniper.

“Of course.”

“How do you deal with being away from Jennah for so long.” This made Finn smile, but Hux tried to keep his attention on the scope.

“Well, I think about what I’m doing here. What my mission with the team is. And I rationalize that if it’s not me out here, then it would be someone else, and maybe they wouldn’t be as good. Maybe they would miss something that I wouldn’t.” Finn talked as Hux took notes on what he was seeing through his gage.

“You don’t ever think about packing it all in, saying _fook off_ I want to be with my wife and _wein_ , to hell with you.” Hux sometimes had thought about if he found Rose and if she would still have him, what he would do. Would he stay with Rogue Team and risk his life day in and day out away from her? Would she want him to do that? Get a proper job that didn’t involve war, settle down and have a proper family with her? That just didn’t sit right with Hux, and he couldn’t tell if that was just selfish or not.

“When Max was born, yes, I never wanted to be away from them. But then Ezra died,” Hux’s heart stopped at the mention of his best friend who had died in a car bombing four years ago. “And I realized that this was is going to happen with or without me. I am the top in my field, if the sacrifice is that I have be away from my family at a stretch, then I owe it to those who came before me who did the same to stay as long as I can.” Hux nodded in understanding.

Hux packed up his gear , he wanted desperately to get back to Resistance, back to Rose and Sabine. In a span of a morning, that little girl had woven herself into Hux’s heart and he wasn’t about to let go.

Finn stopped, clapped a hand on Hux’s shoulder and leveled him with a stare. “If me being gone keeps Jennah and Max from ending up in a place like that,” he pointed in the direction of the camp. “then that’s a very small sacrifice for me to make.”

Hux heard every word Finn was saying and took it all to heart. He was reminded of something he had thought about that morning; Rose was a desert flower who grew despite all adversity and ugliness in the world, and still she was the most beautiful bloom there was. Rose wasn’t the kind to want the village home with the fetes and small-town gossip, neither was Hux. They both craved the action and the need to help and protect. It really did seem to Hux that their meeting was written in the stars. 

Hux smiled at this poetic nonsense as a call came in on the commlink they both wore.

“Rogue Four, this is Rogue One, come in.” Ben was calling. Hux hoped that meant they had information on the source of the assassination. 

“This is Rogue Four, Copy, tell me you have good news, Ren” He and Finn got into the truck and began heading back to Resistance base.

“I wish I did General; I need you two in HAVOC as soon as you can, we have another issue.”

Hux gripped the door handle as Finn stepped on the gas.

“Ren, this is Storm, we are flooring it back to you.

“Copy that Storm.”

The truck screamed through the two checkpoints to get into Resistance only to be met by Ben and Phasma. The truck engine was no sooner off and the keys in Finn’s hand that they rushed into HAVOC, Rose was there with Kaydel and Poe, BB in the corner with Sabine acting as both playmate and protector. Hux also knew this was the best way to allow BB to get used to her scent, something he would only need is the little girl was also in danger.

“Kaydel, I have some sweets in my tent, if you wouldn’t mind taking the child and BB there while I fill these two in on what we know.”

Hux watched the young woman moved from Rose whose face was pale and tear stained and to the little girl and the dog. 

This was not good.

Hux went to his woman and stood behind her, holding her hands tightly.

“We have a new communique on the threat on Doctor Tico’s life, the price has gone up, it is now at five million American dollars. As well as an extra half a million if the little girl is also killed.

Rose let out a strangled cry. Hux moved to pick her up and hold her in his arms taking her seat in the chair. From across the room, Hux leveled Ben and Phasma with a glare that could melt glass.

One that said:

_I will kill any one and anything that so much as breathes wrong on that little girl._

Ben stood up a little straighter in understanding of what Hux was implying.

It was time for Hux to go hunting. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only a couple more chapters to go and then I have to say goodbye to these two beautiful idots! I hope you enjoy this chapter!! If so, please let me know, I love hearing what you guys think!


	7. Across the Divide

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose and Hux are forced to face the distance between them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has been reading this story and to those who have been so patient with me on updating!

“I’m fine.”

Rose said when she heard the door to the office tent open and close. After the briefing and subsequent breakdown, Rose pulled herself together the only way she knew how: dive headfirst into work and ignore the problems that beat at her. It was how she had gotten through medical school after her mother and father had passed and then during her residency after Paige had been killed by a land mine and it will be how she would process everything that had happened in the last 72 hours.

“ _We have a new communique on the threat on Doctor Tico’s life, the price has gone up, it is now at five million American dollars. As well as an extra half a million if the little girl is also killed._ ”

Why Sabine? Was it to hurt her? And if so, why did Rose even matter, what was going on?

“I can see that.” Hux’s voice both startled Rose and calmed her, neither of those emotions were wanted at that moment.

“How’s Sabine?” Rose said without looking away from the pile of paperwork or the ancient laptop that held all of her files from her time with the medical organization. Rose hated paperwork but the monotony of imputing cases and patients into the spreadsheet she had developed over years of being in Lothal helped compartmentalize her out of control thoughts.

“She’s fine, Rose. She’s having lunch with Kaydel and Gwen and has no idea what’s going on.” She heard him move closer to her, his soft Irish laced voice breaking through the walls she so desperately needed to stay up.

“Good.” 

“And you?”

Hux asked after putting a plate of food down next to a pile of papers. The grilled chicken and rice smelled heavenly and it made her stomach rumble loud enough she knew he could hear it from where he was standing in the room. Rose wanted desperately to reach over and go medieval on the drumstick, but she held off. As hungry as she was the idea of actually eating held little joy for her.

“I told you, Hux, I’m fine. I just want to get these files sorted before the next round of wounded come in.” To emphasize her point, Rose placed the folder she was working on from one pile to the next grabbing a new one to document.

“It’s fighting season, after all and we’re close to the Kyber fields.” She was so tired of wounded; of men coming in riddled with bullet holes or children who had gotten too close to a roadside bomb when went off and wishing she was equipped to save them. 

“Rose,” Hux placed his hand on her shoulder but she brushed it off. She wasn’t able to have a conversation right now, not with him, not with anyone. If she did, Rose was sure she would either breakdown again or say something she would regret.

“Don’t.”

They were quiet for long moments before the silence of the tent was interrupted by a knock at the door and one of Hux’s teammates calling for him.

“General, Wolf says time to head out.” Poe called in through the mesh of the tent’s ventilation screen.

Rose stood up quickly and turned to him almost in a panic.

“You’re leaving?” Everyone left Rose: her parents, her sister Paige, and every boyfriend she had ever had all left Rose one way or another. Why did she think Hux would be any different?

Hux walked closer to her but she moved back away from his outreached hand. If he was leaving, she didn’t want to remember his last touch being out of pity.

“Just going on a patrol run.” Hux finally answered, his voice soft. “There’s a village a few clicks from here that we think may have some intel for us on the situation. The tribal chief is a well-known go between for the Rebels and Militia. I go along because Poe’s shit at the local language and we don’t want another war on our hands.” Hux said with a small smile.

Rose chuckled, she didn’t know Por well, but she knew this was a definite possibility, but the weight of the situation was too much on her to feel anything else.

He moved towards her again, this time Hux was faster than Rose could react, his arms wrapping around her securely, tucking her into his body. Rose let out a deep sigh and allowed the feeling of his embrace to surround her. 

“I’ll always come back to you.” He spoke into her hair after placing a kiss to the top of her head.

“I don’t know that.” She whispered into his chest. The words felt wrong even as she spoke them, but she couldn’t take them back. Hux pulled away and placed his hands on either side of Rose’s face to keep her eyes locked on his.

“Yes, you do.”

Rose licked her lips nervously.

“How do I know that?”

“Because I have been looking for you since Dublin. And now that I can have you in my arms and I’m not leaving you ever again.”

“General, come on, Wolf’s getting antsy!” Poe’s voice came through the tent again.

“I’ll be there in a minute!” Hux yelled again.

“You did leave me, Hux.” She pulled away from his hold and moved to the other side of the tent. Close proximity to this man was not good for cognitive brain activity. And right now, she needed all of her synapses firing.

“You left me with a note telling me that the night was beautiful, and all the other bullshit men do when the night’s over. And now, five years later, you show up, and we are supposed to, what, just pick up where we left off? Like you didn’t just rip my heart out of my chest that morning?”

Rose watched as Hux paced in the tent like a caged animal threading his fingers through his hair, pulling at the strands. 

“I went back, Rose and you had already gone.” His response seemed like it was pulled from his chest.

“Yes, I left without leaving my number and that is something I’ve had to live with every fucking day of my life. But now we have a second chance, we finally have a chance to be together.”

“Be together?” Rose almost shouted at him. “You and your team drive into my camp and take over everything. You then tell me there’s a price on my head and then you go all caveman on Snap, pissing around me, marking your territory and now we are supposed to be together? Are you out of your mind?”

“YES!” He shouted back at her, but Rose wasn’t sure what he was agreeing to.

“Yes, I am out of my mind. I’m out of my mind about you.” Rose stood there unsure as what to say to that.

“Rose, I have spent the last five years moving from war zone to war zone, hoping to see you; hoping that the next refugee camp was the one. I have spent an ungodly amount of time trying to get a hint of where you might be and even with all my resources at my disposal. You were a fucking ghost!” Hux walked to the chair Rose had been sitting in when he had walked in and sat down, resting his elbows on his knees and cradled his head in his hands. 

“I thought for sure you were dead. That I hadn’t been there to protect you. That I,”

Rose watched the man in front of her, a strong, hardened, capable man, crumble.

“And when I saw you through my scope, it scared the shit out of me, because if I could get that close to you with my gun,” he took a breath and looked at her with more pain behind his eyes than a man of his age should have.

“Then anyone could get that close to you with theirs.” He finished just as another knock came, this time a little less patient then before. Rose wrapped her arms around his upper body and held him.

“HE’LL BE RIGHT THERE!” She yelled at the door, but instead of the intruder leaving like before, the door opened letting in Hux’s commander, Ben making the already small office even smaller.

“I understand, Ma’am, but we need to go now if we want to be back in camp by nightfall.” Ben spoke and Rose watched a silent communication between the two men before Ben turned and left, leaving Rose and Hux alone yet again.

“You have to go.” Rose brushed Hux’s hair out of his face and smiled warmly at him. Hux smiled back at her but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. 

He had looked for her, had thought she was gone to him forever. What must it have felt like to see her through his rifle’s scope for the first time? Rose couldn’t even imagine the shock and fear that must have gone through him at that moment.

With her hands still raking through his hair, Rose leaned down and kissed him, nothing more than a soft pressing of her lips to his, but what it held behind it was so much more. Hux wasn’t the only one to search for him; there was a time Rose told herself he was a figment of her imagination, the product of an amazing dream brought on by good food and too much champagne; it was the only way to deal with the pain of his leaving. For years Rose had sought out every British regiment that came through the country, hoping there was an Irish contingent who would know him. Or at least heard of him. His metals and ribbons pinned to his jacket that night on his dress uniform was enough to be known through the ranks, wasn’t it?

But no.

Hux stood and, after kissing her again, walked to the door only to be stopped by Rose.

“I looked for you too. And when I couldn’t find you, I figured you didn’t want to be found. That you didn’t want me. So, I tried to move on, but it never really took.”

Hux’s long legs ate up the space between the two of them in a heartbeat. His hands were again cradling her face bringing his own directly to her line of vision.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Poppet.” The Irish drawl swirling around her as he spoke. “I want everything with you.” Hux kissed her again and smiled wickedly, this time reaching his eyes. 

“I’ll be back tonight, and we will talk.”

Rose followed him outside and watched as he jumped in the backseat of the armored Jeep before he and his team drove off into the mid-afternoon sun. She and Hux needed to talk, they needed to figure out what was happening not just with her and Sabine but between them as well. But that could wait; Hux had a job to do, and so did Rose

She thought he had left her.

Hux took a deep breath as he settled into the backseat of the Jeep and waved to Rose who had followed him outside.

“Hey,” Ben turned around from the passenger seat tossing Hux his tactical vest with his comms system tucked inside. “Where you at?” he asked to gage Hux’s focus. 

“Four by Five, But I’ll be good.” Hux answered honestly. He had to keep his head on straight; he had a job to do and that was to make sure these men got home to their families safely. Just like their job was to make sure he did the same; though it felt different now, before he didn’t have a family or really a home to go back to. But no matter the changes in their personal lives, where Rogue Team was concerned, the mission to have each other’s back was one that never changed.

She thought he had left her alone that morning. 

And, really Hux couldn’t blame her for that. He had up and left that morning with just a note saying he had amazing night and only leaving his name. His real name. Not leaving Rose with a way to contact him, or an idea that he had fallen in love with her the moment he had walked into the damn party had been the one true regret of his adult life.

“You let me know if that changes.” Ben said as he fitted his own vest and comms into position.

“Rogue Team, comms check.” Hux heard Wolf, Gwen’s call sign, say through comms indicating that the operation was underway. 

“Rogue One, standing by.” Ben said starting off the check.

“Rogue Two, standing by.” Poe called out, followed by Finn’s Rogue Three and then concluded with Hux using his own call sign and giving a short greeting as was customary.

“Rogue Four, standing by, Wolf as always good to hear your sultry voice through comms.” Even after five years, Hux still thought Ezra would follow up with his own call sign. It was him who would greet Wolf to the comms link and always had a bright smile on his face when she called him out of his sass.

As Gwen rolled out their assignments and what they hoped to learn from the op, Hux took out his two small handguns, checking they each had ammunition and cleared of any debris from the last time he had to use them. 

“Tribal Chief Jaron is old, but our intel says he is quick and sharp as a tack. Any intel he has on who has put the price on Dr. Tico or the child is useful, but Ren, if you feel he might be hiding something, press him.” Gwen said making it clear that they were to go in as noncombatants but if the winds changed, they were sanctioned to put pressure on the old man for information.

“Rogue Four, you with me, General?” Gwen called him out as he finished checking his second weapon.

“I’m with you Wolf, what can I do for you?” Hux tried to be light and calm, both things he was far from at that moment.

“I am going to invite Rose to join me in HAVOC but if you feel she should not hear something, or if you need just me on comms, use your code, Kelly Green, and I will switch it over. Is that satisfactory to you?”

Hux actually felt better that Rose would be in HAVOC with Gwen, but he also knew that her overhearing their communications was risky. 

“Thank you Wolf, I appreciate it.”

Hux looked at his fellow passangers in the Jeep, stuffed in the back with Poe and BB was comfortable for Hux, it was where he belonged. Finn behind the wheel, Ben in the jump seat; this was what he was trained for. But it didn’t escape his notice that it wasn’t what Rose was trained for. 

They really needed to have a talk. Hux didn’t want to think about all the time he had spent looking for her only to find that their two worlds didn’t mix. Hux knew right then if she asked him to leave Rogue Team he would. He just hoped she wouldn’t.

Hux shook his head slightly as the Jeep wound its way through the rocky desert landscape. Once these empty flat fields were filled with Kyber plants, tended by family farmers and sold just enough to make a profit to live comfortably. But, like so many places, a larger and stronger force entered the picture, taking everything for themselves and leaving the locals with nothing.

It wasn’t so different from growing up in Belfast; Hux thought back to his mother smiling as she walked with him to his classroom and said goodbye before walking to her own. Little did Hux know it would be the last time he would ever see his mother. The scar on the side of his neck always itched when he thought back to this moment in his past.

“Heads up,” Hux was shaken out of his memories by Finn calling in the settlement’s checkpoint. Finn’s Lothan wasn’t terrible, it was better than Poe’s that’s for damn sure! But it still took some time to get them to wave the Jeep through. 

Hux looked around at the small village: small huts and tents dotted the landscape. Woman and children were thin on the ground, which prickled at the back of Hux’s neck. 

“Wolf, this is Rogue Four, come in.” Hux said into his commlink.

“Come in Rogue Four, what do you see?” Gwen answered quick and to the point.

Each team member had a special skill set, Poe was a pilot and could fly anything from a multimillion-dollar stealth helicopter to a two-seater crop duster. Finn, apart from being a master at weaponry, he also was a trained field surgeon and could dig a bullet out of you in twenty seconds flat if needed. Ben was a tactical genius able to build a plan out of nothing.

Hux, besides being a hell of a sniper, was good at reading a room. He wasn’t big, or imposing like Ben, he didn’t joke and make people feel at ease like Poe and Finn so Hux was ignored in most scenarios which gave him the ability use his keen sence to read people and places and know within moments who was trustworthy and who wasn’t.

As they drove through the village something just wasn’t sitting right with him. 

“Wolf, we have been driving for about three minutes through what is meant to be a nomadic settlement, it’s almost sundown.”

“What are you getting at, General?” Poe asked as he started to find what Hux was noticing.

“Where are the women?” Hux finally said as a man came to stand in front of the Jeep causing Finn to stop suddenly.

“He’s right, Wolf, there are hardly any women and absolutely no children.” Ben continued Hux’s train of thought. “This place should be covered in women and children with cooking fires getting ready for evening prayers and mealtime.”

“All I see are men.” Finn chimed in after putting the Jeep in park.

“Rogue One, what’s your status?” Gwen asked after a moment.

“Wolf, we are being asked to get out of our Jeep and taken to a smaller area.” Ben answered as carefully as he could as to not upset the men escorting them into the center of the encampment towards what Hux would assume was the elder’s tent.

“General, comes with me. Storm, Pilot keep watch. If you see anything you don’t like, you call it in and we hall ass, clear?” The men gave a unanimous “HUP” in response, each taking their place.

Hux walked in first, hand on the pistol at his hip then let Ben in when he felt it was safe.

“ _Chief Jaron, my name is Ren. This is one of my men, he goes by General.”_ Ben switched to Lothan to hopefully put the Chief at ease.

“I speak English better than you speak Lothan, Mr. Ren.” Jaron said gesturing for the two to sit down at the small table to their side.

“And please, call me Jaron.” He poured the two tea as a gesture of good faith then one for himself. Hux didn’t like the way this tent made him feel, the angles were all wrong and he wished Ezra was there to tell him _why_ it was wrong.

Ezra came from a village like this and on long deployments, Hux would be forced to listen to the ins and outs of village life. What Ezra’s mother would be doing that night, how she would prepare the goat for dinner and how to make proper tea, nothing like the swill Hux drank in Ireland, apparently. Hux sat at attention in the chair as Ben and Jaron talked when a man walked through on of the flaps in the tent and Hux thought that was strange, why would the flap be in the corner of the tent?

He went back to one of Ezra’s many explanations of tent life. 

“ _You see, Hux, a tent is not just a person’s home, but it’s also their wedding gift, and so it is treated as almost holy.”_ Hux remembered Ezra saying one night while they were trapped in a tent of their own.

“ _If a person’s tent is not put on properly, they are seen as disrespectful to not only their families but to the village itself. It can also be a sign of aggression and war. The tent , where a simple set of sheets can be difficult to put on and take off from the posts, but if you wanted a quick getaway, moving the tent off its corners would make it easier for you to rip it off and leave._

_“_ It’s a sign of aggression and war…” Hux said to himself getting Ben’s attention at the same time BB started barking aggressively in warning. But it was too late.

Before he could pull his own handguns out, a man with an automatic rifle entered the tent, and put two rounds in his chest. Thankfully he had been wearing his vest and he would only have to worry about the bruises tha would bloom in the next hour or two. He reached for his guns and began shooting, pulling the now downed table as a shield. He looked over Ben who had gotten three in the chest plate.

“SHOT FIRED! SHOTS FIRED! I REPEAT WE ARE TAKING FIRE!” Poe shouted into their comms while Finn’s own rifle was going off outside. Hux was out of ammo and spotted one of the Lothan men dead on the ground, his own rifle loses in his hands. Hux jumped over the table and grabbed the gun, tossing it to Ben then grabbed another gun from another Lothan that had gone down in the first round of fire.

“Where’s Jaron?” Ben yelled over the sound of the fire outside to Hux.

“He got pulled out when fire started.”

“FUCK!” Was Ben’s only response and Hux felt that sentiment exactly.

“MAN DOWN! I REPEAT MAN DOWN!” Poe’s frantic voice came over the comms making Ben and Hux race outside to see Finn down on the rocky ground covered in blood from a wound in his neck.

Hux covered Poe and Ben as they placed Finn in the backseat with Poe trying to stop the bleeding. Hux screamed when white hot heat passed through his leg making him have to crawl into the cab of the Jeep.

“DRIVE!” Hux yelled as he got into the passage seat next to Ben.

“Wolf we’re coming home.”


	8. Fragile Beauty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things fall apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please be aware of the change in tags as this chapter is dealing with more war, death, and memory of loss.

“Last one,” Rose tied the last suture in Finn’s lower abdomen then moved back to allow the operating nurse to close up. Her entire body hurt from the seven plus hours of surgery but as long as Finn could get through the next 24 hours, he should pull through. 

All in all, the surgery was fairly clean and straight forward: five bullets were extracted with only one hitting a major organ. Rose removed a ruptured spleen and some of his small intestine, but he was bound to make a full recovery. 

Rose knew Armitage and the rest of Finn’s team were waiting on the new of their brother, but Rose needed to take a moment for herself. She walked thought to the washup area, took off her gloves and gown and let the water run over her practically numb hands. The surgery was simple, one she had done a dozen or so times before over the course of her career as an emergency surgern. But this was different, she knew this person. Well, maybe not as well as she knew Kaydel or even Snap, but she had seen him smile and joke with Poe and Ben. He had gone on a scouting mission with Armitage.

Armitage.

Rose placed both hands on the edge of the sink, trying not to have yet another breakdown. She was stronger than this but even the strongest people had their braking points. 

It could very well have been Armitage on her table just now. This man had walked into her life five years ago, turned it upside down only to leave her alone in a cold bed. Then, just as he had before, he shows up and uproots everything she had worked so hard to suppress. 

And to lose him now…

Rose didn’t need a man to complete her, to make her whole and until Armitage came into her life, she never felt a desire to hold on so tightly to someone before. None of this made sense to her and it went against everything Rose had told herself she wanted in life. Even Sabine was a wrench in her life but when she saw her small face looking up at her last year, how was Rose going to say no to those big brown eyes and, at the time, toothless smile?

Rose knew the men were on the other side of that door waiting for news on Finn; she also knew that the moment she went out there the cacophony of war, pain, suffering and death were also waiting for her just beyond the doors. But this was the life she had chosen, the life of a frontlines medical operator and there were people who counted on her.

Standing up straight again Rose dried her hands, walked to the door, and after taking a few deep calming breaths she pushed the doors open and was greeted by three worried faces all standing up from the makeshift waiting room seats they had devised. Rose had to hand it to Rogue Team, they did know how to make something out of nothing.

“Well?” Poe was the first to speak, coming up to Rose but not too close to crowd her.

Rose looked around and was shocked Armitage wasn’t there, but she didn’t let it deter her form the job at hand.

“Finn sustained seven gunshot wounds in total, two were through and through missing vital organs. The five that had been lodged in his lower stomach were all found and removed.” 

There was a collective sigh of relief.

“The next 24 hours are dicey,” Rose continued. Ben, Gwen and Poe all looked at her unblinking to hear the rest. 

“I had to remove some of his small intestine as well as a ruptured spleen and he had massive blood loss. But if he can get through the next 24 without developing an infection or going into cardiac arrest, then he should be in the clear. I will have a nurse with him at all times to watch over his progress.”

Rose hadn’t even finished her sentence before Poe had her in his arms. The hug far from unpleasant and, if Rose was to be honest with herself, it was actually something she needed just as much as Poe must have. 

“Thanks Doc.” He said holding her a little tighter. “Thank you for saving him.”

As Poe moved back from the embrace Rose could see how battle warn the other two men were; scratches and bandages covered their bodies. Ben was in a sling from what looked like an injured clavicle and Poe had a large bandage around his lower leg. 

Absently Rose figured the Kay must have patched up the others while she had been in Finn. She still wondered where Armitage was though. Rose had seen when he came into the camp, his walking had been fine and when she asked about the amount of blood that covered his tactical gear, he had assured her it was all Finns. So, where was he?

“Can we see him?” Ben asked in that soft baritone of his. 

“Yes,” she answered still trying to figure out if Armitage wasn’t there because he was injured worse than he had let on earlier.

“Yes, you can, but he’s going to look a bit rough so don’t be too shocked at it.”

In honesty Finn was lucky to be alive. During the ambush he not only sustained massive injuries to the abdomen and chest, but he also received deep cuts and gashes to his face, probably from a fall or a bullet graze. Either way, unless he saw a plastic surgeon soon, Finn would most likely scar. 

As the two men walked into the recovery unit Phasma stopped Rose, placing her hand on Rose’s mush smaller shoulder.

“Thank you, Dr. Tico,” she began, her voice tinged with an emotion Rose had not heard before from the woman. Normally Gwen Phasma was a take charge, my way or the highway female, something Rose respected and liked. But she was showing a different side of herself, allowing Rose to see a vulnerability she would bet money on she didn’t show often. 

“These men are my family. I know our job is one which revolves around war, death and loss, but in those times, one bonds with those who are in the tranches with you.”

Rose didn’t know what to say. She understood wholeheartedly what she was saying but to hear it said so beautifully was adding another layer to the emotional cracks she had already been feeling. 

“A few years ago, we lost a team member, Ezra.” Phasma continued as they sat on the makeshift stools the team had been sitting on before.

“Ezra was from Lothal, not far from here, actually and was the single best bomb tech that I had ever encountered. He and Hux had become very close, probably the only person I had ever seen Hux get close to, until I saw him with you.” Phasma smiled.

“But when you grow up in a warzone like they did, well, I’m sure that’s a bond an outsider like you or I could never understand.

Rose didn’t quite understand what she meant by both of them growing up in a warzone. Ezra being from Lothal, it made sense. This war had been going on for twenty some-odd years. But what war would Armitage have grown up in? Surely, he wasn’t from Lothal, too.

“We lost him because I trusted someone I shouldn’t’ve, allowing my team to be vulnerable and that misplaced judgment is something I take with me every moment of every day. Giving up control, not being there to check and double check that things go exactly as planned is very difficult for me, Dr. Tico as I’m sure you can relate.”

Rose couldn’t help but laugh at herself. 

“That comes with the territory as a surgeon.” The God Complex and control issues were strong amongst those in her profession and she was humble enough to admit wasn’t immune.

“Then please understand what I’m about to say,” Phasma stood up and began pacing.

“That ambush sits badly with me,”

Rose watched as Phasma walked back and forth.

“I know what you’re probably thinking, an ambush is, by definition, poor planning or missed intel, but trust me when I say, there was no missed intel, no poor planning. I do not send my men out without backup plans to my backup plans.”

Rose was beginning to see where Gwen was going with her speech. Something had been leaked from the camp. 

“You think someone from my camp said something they shouldn’t have.” It wasn’t a question.

“I trust you know your people.” Phasma continued. “And I understand the need for that trust, especially out here. But my men were walking right into a situation that I did not plan for and I do not like that.”

Rose knew she wasn’t being accused of anything; Phasma was just stating a fear that something had been leaked from Roses people. Rose stood up and walked over to the other woman, the height difference making it slightly difficult to look her in the eyes standing so close, but Rose stood up and tall as she could make herself.

“If anyone in this camp disclosed anything that would have caused that ambush then they are no longer welcome here.” Rose didn’t add that her fear that it had been Armitage that had been so wounded he ended up on her table she probably would have gone out hunting that night.

“I just don’t know who it could be.”

“Thank you, Dr. Tico.” Gwen relaxed slightly now that they were in agreement.

“Please, call me Rose.”

“Gwen.”

Moments past in silence, Rose wanting to ask the question that, for some reason, she didn’t know how to ask. It wasn’t as if Gwen didn’t know about her and Armitage, it was obvious and she wasn’t trying to hide it, and, for some reason or another, asking Gwen about his whereabouts within her camp seemed wrong. But her desire to see him, to make sure he was safe and whole overrode Rose’s awkwardness at that moment.

“Umm, Gwen?”

“He is in your quarters.”

The walk across the camp was somehow the longest Rose had ever made even though her tent was only a few meters from the ICU tent. Rose felt her legs moving at a rapid pace, but she still felt as if she were on a treadmill; as if the sand under her feet was keeping her in one spot as she tried desperately to get to her tent. 

Throughout the day Rose watched as Armitage prepared for the mission; checking and rechecking weapons, looking over maps and terrain readouts. She had asked him why and the answer was quick and to the point:

“Because I need to know where a sniper might be located.”

Rose wasn’t naive to the fact there could be snipers in the area, hadn’t she seen a reflection the other day on the high ridge? Had that been a sniper who had wanted to collect the bounty on hers and Sabine’s head? Rose still had a hard time understanding why she and a little girl would be such a high priced target but to think of that just then as she watched the man she had dreamed about, compared all other men to pack up what amounted to an armory onto his body was almost too much. 

After what felt like a million miles had past, Rose made it to her tent but hesitated before opening it. What would she see when she opened it? When she had seen him before heading into surgery with Finn, he had been covered in blood; was he still in his bloody and torn clothing? Did Rose want to see that? Did she want to fall more in love with a man whose job it was to be shot at in a foreign land, fighting a war that wasn’t his?

Rose thought back to everyone in her life she loved; her mother and father, grandparents, and her sister Paige, all had died, leaving Rose alone in the world. And each and every time Rose had to pick up the pieced of her life and carry on, “it’s what they would have wanted.” The lie still coming so easily to Rose. She survived their deaths, could she survive his?

For long moments Rose stood there, the door to her own tent just waiting to be opened. She didn’t know what she was going to encounter when she did and for the first time, the fear of the unknown had Rose almost paralyzed with a hand on the door. She thought of all the other things she could do to drag this meeting out: she could check on the other patients, catch up on paperwork in her office. Or, perhaps she should go to the family section and see Sabine, make sure she was alright. 

But even as she listed all these things, Rose knew she needed to suck it up and walk in.

“Come on Rose, put your big girl panties on and walk in. It’s too late to turn back now.”

Rose opened the door and was greeted with a sight that she almost couldn’t believe was in front of her. 

Armitage, asleep in the chair, feet up on her footlocker and Sabine asleep in his chest, his arms tightly wrapped around her.

Rose thought of all the possible scenarios she could have walked in on, the scariest and most prevalent was Armitage bleeding out on the plywood floor, but never in her life did she expect this sight when she walked into the tent. 

She tried, and was ultimately failing, not to tear up at the scene but the emotional and stressful day had the tears rolling down her face. As quietly as she could Rose closed the door and walked to the bed, ripping off the thin blanket to covering them. 

“Hi,”

The low tenor of the voice washing over Rose like a silken robe. Bushing the tears from her face with the blanket before she turned around, Rose walked to them placing the blanket over Sabine. She leaned down and kissed the forehead of the little girl but hesitated on doing the same to him. But the concern on his face when he noticed she had been crying overtook any hesitation; Rose leaned down and kissed his lips softly and, for the first time Rose had made the first move. 

It wasn’t until the moment when Rose’s lips pressed to his that Rose realized he had always been the first to do anything where their relationship was concerned: he approached her at the party, he had asked her to leave with him. And when he showed back up here just days ago, he had been the one to begin things again. Perhaps that was why she had been hesitant to embark on anything with him because she had never known such an assertive. 

Rose had known aggressive men, pompous men and definitely, thanks to being around war and military types she had known machismo alpha types who had a hard time hearing the word NO.

But as she stood there brushing Sabine’s hair back from her sleeping and blissfully unaware face, she understood that Armitage, as assertive as he was, was the first man she had ever met who had the confidence to tell Rose what he wanted with her and from her, but he never pushed her. Yes the kiss when he first entered the camp had been passionate and unexpected; not to mention the kiss he had given her in front of everyone which she still felt to her core when she thought about it have been a dominate kiss; staking his claim in front of Snap. 

The kiss hadn’t been much more than a soft press of lips but what it meant to Rose was so much more. 

“Finn?”

“Stable but still critical.” Rose moved over to the bed and sat facing them. She began taking off her boots, landing them with a soft thud on the floor and rubbing her feet as she explained everything she already head to the others. 

“How did this happen?” Rose asked with a smile pointing to Sabine.

Armitage smiled and shifted slightly when the child turned her own head in the opposite direction letting out a soft snore.

“While you were in with Finn the camp went on lockdown. My team set up perimeter checks and repositioned tower lights equipped with motion sensors so if there was any movement, we know about it.”

Rose watched as he moved one of his arms to point at the back corner where she hadn’t seen BB sleeping but still looked alert and ready to protect if needed. Even if he was laying on his back with all legs up in the air. 

“BB began barking and whining when the trucks began to move close to the family tent so I went over there with Poe to make sure everything was alright, and the _wee Wein_ was hiding in a tent scared of the noise. I picked her up from the floor and she’s been with me sense.”

Rose liked when Armitage used the Irish slang term for child, or really any Irish word because it made him even sexier. 

“My hope is that she forgets all of this.” Rose finally said trying hard not to start crying again. She worried about Sabine’s emotional growth, what lasting trauma she might hold as an adult. 

“If she’s lucky, she will but,” Armitage’s face became somber and pensive as he spoke. “we children of war become scared and those scares are carried with us and show themselves in different ways.”

There is was again, the reference to Armitage growing up during a war.

“What war did you grow up in?”

Armitage gave a sad smile before answering.

“The longest and bloodiest war that has ever been fought and no one even remembers happened; I grew up in Belfast during the last years of the Troubles.”

Rose knew very little of the conflict between England and Northern Ireland, only that it happened, and it was a big deal when it was over. And instead of asking questions on the history, like how it started, what was the reason or something equally as dumb that she could easily google, Rose sat on the bed and listened to Armitage’s story of growing up in a silent war he had no choice but to try and live a normal life through. 

As he spoke, more and more about who this man was fell in to place; his sense of duty and honor as well as his compassion for others all came into clearer focus. His ability to read people, he said came from having to walk into a room and know immediately if the people in there were “friendly” or not. His weapons knowledge was honed during his time in the military but had begun and crafted while growing up in a house with an IRA officer for a father. A father, Armitage had explained, who had been a bomb maker by trade and had set a bomb to go off in the same school his ex-wife and Armitage’s mother had taught in. either no realizing or not caring that Armitage would be in the other side of the school.

Rose’s heart broke for the child Armitage had been to not only lose his mother in such a violent way, and that it happened at the hands of his own father, to also be in the school as well; but the worst of it being that Armitage believed his father had set that bomb specifically to target his mother had Rose’s breath hitching.

“But why?” She had finally asked, her voice cracking at the pain he must have felt.

“A month or so before the explosion, Brendol had been arrested and charged, along with others he typically worked with, with conspiracy to commit an assassination of an English convoy that had been announced. In the envoy would have been a high-ranking British MP who, if allowed to, would have made things even more difficult for the separatists in Northern Ireland.”

As he spoke, Rose couldn’t help but notice the soft caress of his hand up and down Sabine’s back, giving her comfort in her sleep but probably giving himself comfort as well.

“He was arrested before he could plant the roadside bomb that would have taken out the motorcade which had planned to go through the city center. Lucky for Brendol, there wasn’t enough evidence for the attack, but they kept him and his crew just long enough to allow the envoy to come and go in relevant peace.”

Armitage’s pets and soft touches to Sabine had slowed down as the story went darker. 

“Brendol, being the mad drunk and quick to anger that he was, believed that only my mother could have been the one to have told the authorities about the plot despite her constant and adamant refusal that she hadn’t. But he didn’t believe her and a week later he placed a bomb in the school’s boiler room which was just below the classroom where she was, killing her and five girls all Sabine’s age.” He took a deep breath and kissed the child in his arm on the back of her dark-haired head. 

“Oh, Armitage,” Rose was at a loss for words. The pain this man had gone through at such a young age was beyond anything a child should have to go through. And to be able to come out of it as he has, was a testament to his own character. 

Absently, Rose noticed BB wake up and walk to the door, wanting to go out, whining and making a fuss. Not wanting to upset the sleeping child she stood up and let him out, watching as he ran into the center of the camp, barking loudly, acting in a way Rose had never seen him act.

Armitage was behind her almost instantly having put Sabine on the bed under the covers to continue to sleep. 

“What’s up with BB?” he heard Kay ask, coming out of her own tent, Gwen flowing close behind.

“BB, COME!” Rose heard Poe yell trying from the other side of the central officer’s camp, trying to get the dog’s attention but it wasn’t working; the large German Shepheard was still pacing and acting strangely.

“Oh I think I know what’s wrong,” Rose heard Kay say to the group as she moved across the open area to get the thing she believed was causing BB to go crazy; the chain on the flag pole had come lose again making a loud clanking sound that would drive a normal human mad, so a dog with heightened hearing and training being upset by the noise made sense.

“Poe…” Rose heard Ben say at the same time Gwen yelled for Kay to come back to where she was.

“I see it.”

It seemed that all at the same time the team had become very still and on edge; the barking had stopped, and Rose looked in the direction of BB wondering if it was, in fact, the chain that had caused the issues. But all she saw was BB sitting, moving into a down position, his focus on the area where Kaydel was closely. 

Everything that happened seemed to be in slow motion and when Rose looked back on it she would be able to describe it in perfect detail because it her perception of the events:

Once the dog had gone fully into the down position on the ground, Poe made a sharp and ear-piercing whistle causing BB to move back to him in record time.

Gwen called for Kay to come back to her more franticly as well as Ben and even Armitage each yelling her name, but it was as if Kay couldn’t hear them, which didn’t make sense, she wasn’t that far from the others or she saw the bomb and was struck still with fear. 

What Rose was surprised by the most about the explosion wasn’t how hot it was, the brightness of the fire ball or even the blast of air that knocked her over: No, what Rose was shocked by was how delayed the sound was before it got to her ears and then how quickly everything, the light, heat and sounds all stopped leaving only a ringing in her ears and a sting on her face. 

Just as the blast hit, Armitage had grabbed her and turned both of them, so his back was a shield, but it hadn’t been able to stop a bit of shrapnel to graze her left cheek. 

“KAY!” she yelled out once she could turn back around at the carnage of the bomb. But there was nothing. Kay was gone. All that was left was a crater where the blast had originated and a few fragments.

Rose collapsed to the ground, sobbing into Armitage’s chest. The stress, fear and overall emotional rollercoaster from the past few days all came to a head and Rose couldn’t and wouldn’t push it back any longer.

How had this happened? How was Kaydel just, gone? 


	9. A Piece Out of Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the death of Kaydel the team must find out how everything has gone wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: There is A LOT of talk about death and war. please read the tags if you are concerned.

No matter the number of times he was faced with a tragic circumstance, Hux was always amazed at how the world continued to turn; the sun still came up, a bright, glowing orb in the sky. The sun didn’t know that a woman died last night. The sun didn’t know Kay’s loss would be felt for years to come by all those who watched her perish from the world in a puff of smoke, ash, blood, and heat.

No, the sun was a heartless bastard who didn’t care about the life or death of Doctor Kaydel Connix. Hux wished he could be like the sun, not to feel the pain and utter helplessness weighing him down as he walked into the early morning light. 

When Ezra had died, Hux had felt much the same, lost and angry as the world continued to turn despite the loss of his teammate, friend, brother. At the time, the only thing Hux could focus on was to get back to Rose, head home to Dublin, and lose himself in her softness while his mind processed the death of such a fun and alive person.

Hux had been only nine when his mother died, the mind of a child unable to process that he would never see his mother again fully. That she wouldn’t walk through the front door or cross over the playground during recess to say hello and give him a sweet she always seemed to have hidden in her pocket. His mother vanished quickly in his house due to Brendol’s belief that she had been the one to talk with the police causing him to spend a year in prison. And by the time of the Good Friday Accords in 1998, Hux had all but forgotten his mother.

It had taken years for him to remember her name, and to this day, he wasn’t sure if Orla Hux was a real person or someone; he needed to be real. 

Making his way across the camp after checking that Rose was asleep, Hux covered his eyes while cursing the sun yet again. He didn’t know Kaydel longer than a few days, but in that short time, she seemed like someone you wanted to have at your back in a place such as Resistance Camp. She gave a little sense of grounding in an otherwise upturned world. If Rose’s reaction to her death was anything to go one, Kaydel was the only thing, other than the child, keeping Rose’s sanity intact.

Hux looked in the direction of the flagpole, ground zero for the explosion, and couldn’t believe that it had already been cleared of blood and debris. Hux headed in the direction of HAVOC, where he knew his team would be waiting for him. Not even when Ezra had died did he feel such a hesitation of doing his job. Hux was a professional, a trained soldier who had learned how to compartmentalize his feelings and emotions from childhood. But this, this place, this event had been far too close to taking someone else he loved. Kaydel’s death was tragic, and an unnecessary casualty could have easily been Rose. And that thought gave him more than just a moment of pause. If Hux lost Rose and the child? Well, there was no coming back from that. 

“General,” Poe said after giving Hux a tight embrace. Taking the comfort, Hux clung to the other man just as tightly as was being done to him.

“What are you doing here? Go and be with your girl.” Ben’s baritone voice came from the other side of the table in the middle of the room. Ben was a stoic man and never one to beat around the preverbal bush. 

“Rose is asleep, at least for now, with Sabine.” Hux started as he walked around the table to a solemn Gwen looking at bomb fragments scattered about the table. “It’s better I’m here.” Hux took Gwen’s hand, squeezing it to give whatever comfort he could give to the woman, placing her hand on top of his, her face a mask of pain and loss. 

It was apparent Gwen had become fond of Kaydel; even from the moment they arrived at the camp, Hux had noticed the softening around the edges the other woman brought out in his commanding officer. Hux and Gwen had been together from Rogue Team’s inception, and in that entire time, she never gave any clue as to that side of her. Hux had always assumed it was due to being a strong woman in the military and then again when she joined Special Branch.

With the unspoken emotions out of the way, Hux closed that part of his brain off, focusing on the problem at hand.

“Alright, what do we know so far?” Gwen began as Hux picked up a fragment at the table, turning it over in his hand, trying to see if he could make anything from it. Growing up in Northern Ireland with a bomb maker for a father, Hux learned quickly to build bombs and how to recognize the components themselves. Every bomb maker had a signature; a piece of metal or particular wiring they chose to use.

Over the years, Hux had learned a fair amount of local bomb maker’s work. If he could put a name with the device, he could go hunting and end this cluster fuck of a mission. 

“We did a count of everyone in the camp; both medical and refugee sectors have been accounted for, save for one,” Hux turned in the direction of the screen as Ben took charge of the intel portion of the meeting, a job typically left to Phasma.

“Let me guess,” Poe said as he sat on the small cot with BB in his lap, the dog still a little shaken from being so close to the blast site. “Wexley is nowhere to be found.”

Hux had known the pompous Brit would hightail it out of there when shit got messy. Since he arrived on the scene, Snap Wexley seemed to be a spineless worm, and it wasn’t just because he was too close to his Rose. Growing up as he did, Hux didn’t trust the British on a good day; Finn and Gwen were a few of the only exceptions, Ben’s on and off again girlfriend Rey and Finn’s wife Jannah, and by extension their son Max, being some of the only ones he would call friends. But Snap Wexley truly rubbed Hux the wrong way, and it’s wasn’t only his nationality; no, there was something else about him, but Hux still hadn’t been able to put his finger on it.

“Any idea where the worm slinked off to?” Hux moved to the small coffee set up, making himself a cup before returning to the media table. Hux hated coffee, but good Irish tea was hard to travel with; its loose form the only way to prepare it in Hux’s humble opinion. So, stale coffee was his only option. At least it was hot.

“No.” Gwen said, finally adding to the conversation as she pointed the small remote to the screen as a picture of the man in question shown on the monitor. 

“Is it just me,” Ben said as he moved a little closer to the picture. “or does he look familiar?”

“Looks like every other English bugger to me.” Taking a sip of his coffee, Hux moved closer to the screen. “you see one English prig, you seen them all.” Hux looked over at Gwen, who returned the glance with a raised brow. “Present company excluded, Captain.” Gwen rolled her eyes and returned to the screen. Gwen knew Hux’s history, as did Finn, and neither of them had ever taken offense to Hux’s generalization of the English to heart. They were minorities in their own right, Finn the son of African immigrants, and Gwen being a woman in a patriarchal world, and both understood they weren’t treated the same as men like Wexley. 

“No,” Ben continued to scrutinize the picture on the screen. “there’s something else; I just an’t put my finger on it. What do we know about him?”

“Very little, actually.

I started compiling a database of employees and volunteers when we arrived,” Gwen began typing on the computer connected to the screen, the stats of Wexley on display.

“Graduated from Magdalen College in 2005, not exactly at the top of his class, I might add.” Hux had to smile at the small dig Gwen gave to the man’s education. She went to Cambridge and graduated a year early and at the top of her class.

“I have employment histories but,”.

“But what, Captain?” Hux could see where this was going and did not like it.

“I don’t seem to have anything from before Oxford. No school or even medical records. There seems to be a general void in this man’s past.”

“Like he doesn’t have a past.” Poe continued the train of thought

“So, that begs the question, who the fuck is Thomas Wexley?”

An hour had passed since Rose heard Armitage leave the tent, the door closing softly with a click of the latch. Armitage wanted her to sleep, held her and Sabine for longer than she had thought he would, so when Sabine had begun softly snoring, Rose allowed herself to slow her breathing, giving him the solace he needed, believing she had fallen asleep. 

Rose watched the shadows move slowly across the plywood floor of the tent, counting the steady breathing of the child she held tightly in her arms. Rose knew she couldn’t stay there for much longer. The day to day workings of the camp didn’t stop just because one person had died. No matter if that person was the only real friend Rose had ever had. The patients didn’t care that Kaydel was dead. The supply trucks that were due to arrive sometime that day wouldn’t stop coming merely because Rose had watched as her beautiful friend had...

No. Rose would not think like that. She couldn’t think about how Kay died because it was too similar to her sister’s death. For years after the minefield accident, Rose wondered if Paige was scared moments before the landmine went off. Had she known she would die and said a small prayer to a higher power neither of them believed in on the off chance he or she did exist? Rose spent years asking these questions with no answer, and she could not start asking them again. 

“Roro,” the soft voice brought Rose out of her spiraling thoughts and back to the present. 

“Yes, Bean?” Rose pushed back the baby-soft hair away from Sabine’s face and couldn’t help but smile.

She loved this child more than anything.

So much so she was taking her home with her, where ever home was at this point, while also giving up her commission with the aid organization. She wanted Sabine to live a happy and safe life, and Rose knew she couldn’t do that if she were in this place. 

“How, BB?” The child’s broken English was getting better every day, despite what Snap said. So what if she still didn’t know how to make full sentences. That would come in time, Rose was sure of it.

“BB is ok, I think. He’s with Mr. Poe now, so he’s getting all kinds of cuddles. You know how much Mr. Poe loves BB.”

“Can we go, BB? See he good?” Rose relaxed a bit, allowing Sabine to sit up in the bed better.

“Put your shoes on, and we will go see BB.”

Rose watched as the little girl put her sandals on, so excited about seeing BB they almost went on the wrong feet. Bending down to help, Sabine pet Rose’s hair, mimicking what Rose had done while they were lying in bed.

“Kay gone.” Sabine’s lower lip began to quiver, and Rose wrapped her up in a hug, picking her up as she did so. Sabine had seen so much death in her very short life, and Rose had tried her damndest to keep the horrors at bay while she had been at the camp. 

Rose had never seen this coming.

“Yeah, Bean. Kay’s gone.” Rose held tighter to the child, taking the comfort of the six-year old’s weight in her arms as she slipped her own shoes onto her feet before heading into the mid-morning sun and making the quick journey across the center of the camp to the main tent where Armitage and his team had set up their equipment.

“BB!” Sabine crawled out of her arms and raced to the large dog now sitting up, excited to see his new friend. She began speaking to the beast in her native language in a ramble of words causing Armitage to giggle. 

Walking further into the tent, she saw the screen had been turned off quickly at her arrival, and for the first time, Rose wasn’t upset that something was being kept from her. If they felt the need to hide what they were working on, she probably didn’t need to know.

Armitage was on the other side of the massive table in the center of the room, looking over bits of metal fragments and what looked like copper wiring. Thankfully the table was free of any blood or remnants of Kay, small favors, she guessed. 

Armitage’s back to her while he was watching the child and dog have a one-sided conversation, Rose was able to appreciate Armitage back fully. Dressed in a thin long-sleeved Henley, the sleeves pushed up to the elbow; she saw his tattoos, which only enhanced his forearm’s corded muscles.

How had she never noticed how tight and firm they were before? Armitage was now joining in on the conversation with Sabine and BB, his back a waltz of movement as he gestured here and there while speaking.

Rose wasn’t oblivious to her attraction to Armitage; from the instant they had seen each other, she had wanted him, and in those years apart, he had only grown more ruggedly handsome, more comfortable in his own skin. 

“…Rose,” Had he been talking to her? All she could focus on was when he had turned around, placing his arms on the table and leaning his weight onto the solid metal as she thought about what his pectoral muscles looked like when he moved like that. 

“What?” Smooth, Tico.

“Are you hungry?” Armitage repeated the question, moving closer to her.

Rose knew what was happening, and she wasn’t going to fight it. It was natural after a tragedy such as they had just endured wanting to have sex to feel like you are alive. A reminder that you didn’t die and to live life to the fullest. 

Rose was hungry, alright. Hungry for the man making his way towards her. 

Without speaking, Rose took Armitage’s hand and pulled him out into the warm morning air, not stopping until they were safely in the confines of her tent. 

“Rose, what are you doing?”

She toed off her boots and pulled off her shirt before pulling him down for a deep kiss. Everything came into clear focus in that kiss: she loved him. Rose had fallen in love with this man five years ago, and no man had ever come close since then. She had tried and failed countless times to find love and happiness, but it was never right.

They never had the right accent, or their red hair wasn’t the right shade. 

Yes, Kay died only hours ago, and she would mourn the loss of her friend for years to come, but Armitage was here now, and she was never going to allow him to leave her again. 

“What does it look like I’m doing, Armitage?” she said while unbuckling his belt to get to where she needed to be. “I want to fuck you.”

Rose could imagine Armitage Hux wasn’t easily surprised, but the look on his face was that of someone who did not foresee this as being part of his day. 

Once his pants were undone, a pool of khaki fabric on the floor along with his boxers, Rose went to her knees, eye level with his now fully engorged cock. 

“Flower…”

“You wouldn’t let me the first time, and now I am in charge here.” She gave the evilest smile she could muster before licking up the base and circling the mushroomed head, moaning softly at the salty taste. Rose wasn’t a big fan of blow jobs, but there was something about wanting to worships this man’s cock with her mouth that had her mouthwatering. 

The panting moan that escaped Armitage’s mouth as she sucked him into her mouth only to pull away with a loud POP was almost making Rose just as wet as he was hard. 

“Please, flower, I’m so close; I want to be inside you,” His hands began threading through Rose’s hair, giving soft pulls as pleasure encased him.

He may have wanted to be inside of her, but she wanted to taste him. And there was nothing that was going to stop her. Placing one hand around his body to rest and gently massage his toned ass cheek and the other at the base of the member, Rose began to pump and suck in tandem. 

The explosion of salty liquid was divine, and Rose found herself not wanting to pull away to spit as quickly as she usually would. Instead, she pumped his length a few more times as she sucked at him like a straw, and he was her favorite milkshake. 

The stream of words that came out of his mouth was in a language she didn’t know but wished she did. Pulling away from him after one last lick, she looked up at the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, never to be separated again until death took one or each of them.

“Armitage, I…”

“BEN! STOP!”

The shout came from outside, Gwen and Poe both yelling after the large man. 

“What, flower?” Armitage helped Rose up from the ground as Rose went to her toes, wrapping her arms around his neck for a deep kiss.

“THE FUCK MAN, THINK ABOUT THIS YOU CAN’T JUST…”

“THE FUCK I CAN’T! SHE’S IN DANGER!”

Armitage pulled back then, righting not only his clothes but Rose’s as well before they ran outside just as one of the Jeeps started.

“BEN?” Rose watched as Armitage ran over to the jeep, standing in front of the vehicle keeping Ben from driving off.

“He’s her brother, Hux! Her fucking brother!”

Rose had no clue as to the “her” they were referring let alone who her brother might be.

“Thomas Wexley is Tommy Boy Kelvin!”

Gwen walked to Rose as the two men were speaking, holding out a small tissue. Taking it, Rose looked at the much taller woman who gestured to her own mouth, indicating there was something on Rose’s. 

Whipping off the last remints of Armitage from her mouth, she turned to Gwen in question.

“Rose,” Gwen finally said without looking at her. “We have a major problem.”


	10. Ghosts from the Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He would have missed her entirely if it hadn't been for wrong intel.

Four years ago

"I'm sorry, repeat that," Hux sat in the car while the Captian's voice came through the static on his coms.

"I repeat, abort the mission." Hux and Ezra looked at each other in confusion as she spoke those words. "We have intel from Rogue One that Kelvin is in London, not Dublin."

"Is he sure about that, Cap?" Ezra was the only one who could get away with calling Gwen Phasma, leader of the elite operations Rogue Team, "Cap," and get away with it. "He's not seeing things clearly since he met the girl."

Hux had to agree with the other man on that point; in the six weeks they had been on the trail of Thomas "Tommy Boy" Kelvin, their teammate had been anything but clear-headed. His part of this mission was to tail Kelvin's half-sister, Rey, to find out if she had any contact with him. Ben took this one step further, making his presence known and starting a covert romantic relationship with the woman.

"I understand your point, Ghost, but I have photo confirmation just now from Ren; Kelvin is in London surrounded by high-flyers. We can't touch him."

Hux sunk into his seat, letting out a frustrated sigh. He and Ezra had worked on this extraction for weeks, only to have it bust at the last minute. 

"Captain," Hux said as the car moved further up the valet line. "What do you want me and Ghost to do now?" the car moved another foot forward. 

"We are in position and cannot move out until we reach the door."

"Just what I said before, General; mission is scrapped; we will reconvene in the morning." The care inched forward again, now only one car away from the front of the large estate. 

"So, what I hear you saying is we can go to the party and have a good time?" Ezra turned in his seat to look at Hux with a devilish smile. "As in we have the night off?"

"Yes, Ghost, you can have the night off." Hux's coms switched off with a click leaving the two men free with no interference. When the team was on Mission Level Alpha, they rarely had time off as they were now. 

However, with their target in London and them in Dublin, they had no reason to continue on Mission Level with no clear path forward. 

"Sir," the car door opened, and a young man in a red jacket gestured in the direction of the entrance as Hux adjusted his uniform. The kelly green straight jacket had been in his closet for years, only wearing it for formal occasions or nights like this, when he needed to blend into his surroundings.

Hux repositioned his special forces beret, so it was set at an angle on his head as Ezra moved around the car to join him, his sandy-colored Lothan armed forces uniform fitting the other man like a glove. 

"I hope they have crab cakes," Ezra said as he put his own cover on, completing the look. At 21, Ezra was the youngest member of the team and thought of him as the little brother he never had, teasing the other man relentlessly but always having his back no matter if it was a mission or playing wingman on their rare nights off. 

It didn't take long for Ezra to leave Hux's side, following a beautiful woman holding a tray of food, giving Hux the perfect opportunity to head to the bar on the other side of the room. 

He didn't drink often, and hardly ever while on a mission, but with the abrupt change in orders, Hux had gone from high alert to standing still in a matter of moments, leaving him with an excess of adrenalin. A tumbler or two of rye should hello take the edge off. A night between a beautiful woman's thighs would do the trick as well, but Hux didn't want to bother with that tonight. Who knew what tomorrow would bring, and he didn't want to deal with the awkwardness that always followed?

"Champagne, please," Hux heard from the other side of the curved bar; the soft female voice free of the Irish brogue he knew filled the room. The woman was stunning: her long black inky black curtain of hair cascading down one side of her shoulder glowing in the purple stage light behind her. The blue dress she wore clung to her body as if it had been painted on her luscious curvy body. Her exotic features were making her stand out even more in the sea of milk toast Dubliners, something Hux put himself in as well. Never had he seen a woman so beautiful not have a group of men fawning all over her. 

Was she here alone, or was she looking for a break from her escort Hux was sure had to be around here somewhere. If she were his, there was no way he would ever let a woman as stunning and remarkably intriguing be left alone for one moment. 

Hux watched as she took the drink she had ordered from the bartender and almost stopped breathing as she brought the glass of bubbles to her deep red lips. It was only after she ate what looked like a crab cake in her mouth, chasing it down again with her beverage, that he noticed she was suddenly three inches shorter than before, the counter much higher on her body than it had been just moments before. With all the stealth and grace Hux's sniper abilities gave him, he slid closer from behind, not enough to crowd her, but close enough so she could hear over the band playing.

"I do not know how you women do it," Hux said, making the woman turn to face him. In an attempt to be casual, Hux motioned to the bartender for another drink. 

"I'm sorry?" She said, stepping backward slightly. 

"The shoes," Hux answered after getting his drink. "I don't know how you women make it look so _fooking_ simple, standing around on your toes for hours on end," He took a sip and was shocked at how strong his accent had suddenly become. Years of being with British and Americans had caused his brogue to soften ever so slightly. 

"I've gone through torture training that I bet is less arduous than what you have hiding under the skirts of that beautiful dress." Hux had moved closer to the woman making her lift her face towards him. Even with the shoes, hiding beneath the pooling of her skirt, Hux would be shocked if she would come to his chin. 

Barefoot as she was now, her petite size had her reaching his center chest. 

"You have no idea. I bet if you boys had to spend even an hour in these, you would break and give away all your military secrets."

"Oh, I'm sure of it." Hux introduced himself as Armitage, which he never used, ut there was something about the woman that made Hux want to hear her say it; say it or on a moan as he made her come with his mouth. 

As he spoke with the woman, Rose, Hux couldn't believe his luck that the mission had been aborted. If Kelvin had been in the room, he and Ezra would already be tailing him, preparing for the extraction with the tranquilizer syringe currently being forgotten in his pocket. If the mission had gone to plan, Hux never would have seen this goddess of a woman. After a quick assessment of her interest and a fast motion to Ezra that he was leaving, Hux and Rose were in his car, heading towards her apartment. 

When Hux woke up that morning, he had planned to be in the back of a van with Finn while they drove to the chosen black site. Tommy Boy Kelvin was an arms dealer, drug kingpin, and suspected war criminal, and he needed to be taken off the streets. But none of that mattered when Hux's lips were deliciously pressed against the softness of Rose's. 

He had made her moan his name multiple times, and Hux groaning hers as he came with the most exquisite orgasm of his life. Hux laid next to her, with her soft breasts pressed against his chest, their heartbeats trying and failing to return to a slower pattern. The last thing Hux wanted was to remove himself from the warm cocoon of her body, but he needed to deal with the condom and care for her before they did anything else. Upon his return to the bedroom, Hux couldn't help but smile at the soft snores coming from Rose, his flower. He never believed in love at first sight, but now he could understand when Finn spoke about Jannah or how Ben had fallen for Kelvin's sister even though it threw the entire mission into chaos. 

Hux rejoined his flower in the bed, covering her up so her rapidly cooling body would stay warm. He wrapped his arms around her, and after a soft kiss to her bare shoulder, Hux closed his eyes, feeling content and safe for the first time in years. 

The soft buzzing of his phone woke Hux up just as the sun was beginning to peek from behind the horizon. Carefully, so not to wake his sleeping beauty, Hux reached for the phone and saw Ezra had texted him three times and Phasma six before that. 

Shit, he thought, opening up his lock screen to read the missed messages. 

Wolf: We have confirmation on target

Wolf: Wheels up at OhFiveHundred. 

Wolf: You will miss your transport. 

Wolf: General. Check-in. 

Wolf: Ghost informed me you are not alone. Check-in immediately. 

Wolf: New transport set at OhSevenHundred. 

Ghost: Wolf is pissed; wake the fuck up now. 

Ghost: She was hot, but we leave for L-Town in an hour

Ghost: I'm outside. 

Hux looked at the time on his phone and inwardly swore to himself. Fuck, it was already 06:45, and his flower was still curled around him, soft a supple. He hated leaving her and hated even more that he couldn't leave a contact number. He was still technically on Mission Level Alpha, and he had to be invisible to everyone when his ML was that high. 

But Ezra was waiting downstairs thanks to the unique tracker they all had installed just on the off chance a teammate is taken or something happened during a mission. Hux had a job to do, and no matter how much it hurt that he would not see this beautiful creature again, his mission took precedent. 

Hux quickly dressed and, before leaving, wrote a note he knew would never do justice to what he and Rose experienced. God, Was it only a few hours ago he was deep inside her warm and welcoming body as she sang his name? 

**_I got called into work. I don't know when I'll be back. Last night was amazing._ **

**_Goodbye, my beautiful flower._ **

**_Armitage._ **

Hux got into the car and looked up at the window, knowing she was still warm in her bed. 

"Damn, you look both completely wrecked and blissful at the same time. She must have done something to you." Ezra said as the car pulled out onto the road to catch their ride out of Dublin. 

"Ezra, you have no idea." 


	11. The Hard Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The truth is finally spoken

"Is it just me," Gwen looked up from her own screen at Ben's words. "or does he look familiar?"

"Looks like every other English bugger to me. You see one English prig, you seen them all."

Usually, Gwen would admonish Hux for his anti-British rhetoric and only halfway mean it. Still, Her mind was somewhere else just then. Kay was gone. Gwen had only known her a few days, but the connection between her and the other woman was strong and clear; there was something there, and for the first time, Gwen hadn't been scared to explore what that something was.

Gwen felt for Rose, having lost her friend in such a way, to have seen it happen doubled the pain her memory would bring up. Gwen Phasma had witnessed the deaths of her fair share of comrades in arms, friends of the fold she'd watched die in horrific ways. It was a wonder she was able to sleep at all; the images of their deaths seared into the back of her eyelids. She still awoke drenched in sweat, reliving Ezra's death, a man who she thought of as a younger brother. Ezra and now Kaydel, both people, had been so alive and energized about life itself to be taken from this world in such a brutal and final way. The fairness of it all continued to push on Gwen.

"No," Ben's voice filled her ears again, bringing her back to the matter at hand. "there's something else; I just can't put my finger on it. What do we know about him?"

"Very little, actually. I started compiling a database of employees and volunteers when we arrived," Gwen opened another photo of Wexley on the screen: a plump man in his late thirties with dark hair and a beard to match sent no red flags in her mind. "Graduated from Magdalen College in 2005, not exactly at the top of his class, I might add."

It felt like they were staring at a ghost when they read through the man's employment forms. It is evident to Gwen, and the team knew that Thomas Wexley was an alias for someone, but no one could pinpoint who it might be. 

For an hour, if not longer, Gwen watched as Ben toggled back and forth between the few photos they had of the man known as Snap. HAVOC went quiet once the child had come to play with BB and Poe, and Hux leaving with Rose almost as soon as she had entered. Gwen never knew the full extent of how deeply Hux felt for his mystery doctor, but Gwen couldn't have been happier with her. She was smart, clever, and, most of all, able to stand up to anything life had to throw at her. As she did with Wexley and even Kaydel, Gwen had begun complying information on Rose Tico almost as soon as she had met the woman. She didn't want to be caught off guard if things went sideways.

Rose Tico was born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska; her parents and grandparents were immigrants from Vietnam. Her father and grandmother had been members of the boat evacuation in the American occupation's last days. Gwen liked that, her own family had been refugees from Soviet Russia and given legal status in England just before the fall. 

"What's that?" Gwen heard Sabine ask. 

"What's what, sweetheart?" Poe asked, moving closer to the little girl.

Gwen watched as the little girl pointed to the screen's image and then to her neck, indicating the sizeable Georgian dragon on the man's neck.

"It's a tattoo," Poe answered, rolling up his sleeves to show his ink.

" _Snap doesn't have tattoo?"_ The small child said in her native Lothan.

"My Lothan isn't as good as the General's but, I think she's saying something about a tattoo?" Ben said, switching back to the image before. 

" _Sabine, that is not Snap."_ He said, pointing to the man on the screen. Tommy Boy Kelvin was a tall and lean, clean-shaven man. He had been Ben's true nemesis.

"Yes." The one word sent shivers down Gwen's spine. It couldn't be.

Gwen typed furiously on her keyboard. Two images popped up next to each other; one was Tommy Kelvin, the other the most recent photo of Snap Wexley.

"Captain, can you," Ben began to ask, but she was way ahead of him.

"Doing it now." after a few more keystrokes, the Wexley image was cleanly shaven, slimming down his face of its soft roundness.

"Mother fucker…" Ben stood up and walked to the screen, all the color draining out of his face.

"Ren," Poe said carefully.

"He's dead." Ben started it as the fact that it was. Ben had taken the shot almost two years ago in Berlin. 

"Ren," Gwen joined in on trying to get Ben's attention.

"He'll go after her." Gwen closed her eyes; the "her" in question was Rey Kelvin, Tommy Kelvin's younger sister, the same one who had turned on him, revealing to Ben where to find him. The woman Ben had fallen deep and hard for all those years ago. The woman he could never have.

"Ren, we don't know that," Poe said, trying to diffuse the situation.

"THE FUCK WE DON'T!" Ren ran out of the tent Gwen and Poe quickly following after him.

"BEN! STOP!" They shouted together.

"THE FUCK MAN, THINK ABOUT THIS YOU CAN'T JUST…"

"THE FUCK I CAN'T! SHE'S IN DANGER!"

Hux burst out of Rose's tent, sprinting to Ben already in the truck.

"Ben, stop! What's going on?" Hux said, placing his hand on the larger man's shoulder.

"THE FUCK MAN, THINK ABOUT THIS YOU CAN'T JUST…"

"He's her brother, Hux! Her fucking brother! Thomas Wexley is Tommy Boy Kelvin!"

"Running off like this isn't going to keep her safe." Hux didn't yell at the other man, but his voice didn't broach so much as an argument.

"I can't, Hux, I can't… I have to protect her."

"And we will." Gwen watched Hux take the keys out of the engine and open the door to let Ben out. "But we will do this together. The right way."

Rose came to stand next to Gwen as Poe and Hux got Ben back into HAVOC to calm him down. 

"Rose, we have a major problem."

"How's he doing?" Rose asked the nurse assigned to Finn as she walked into the ICU medical tent. 

The soldier was still lying flat on the bed, tubes and catheters keeling him alive from minute to minute. 

"Good, Doctor." The nurse answered, handing the chart over to Rose to look over. "Temp is steady at 99, pulse/ox is still a bit on the low side at 85 but rising every hour."

"That's good. Fluids look good too, good output, and he seems responsive to external stimuli. Has he regained consciousness?"

"Not yet, but I expect it will be sooner rather than later."

Rose looked up from the cart with a smile. "Well, Commander Johnson, we aren't out of the woods just yet, but I like the path we are on."

Rose waited until the nurse left the tent before she collapsed into the chair by the bed in utter exhaustion. Her entire body was running on fumes, and those were burning off quicker than Rose could refuel. 

A warlord. An actual warlord had been welcomed into her camp with open arms. When all this was over, she would have a few strong words with the organization about their vetting policies and procedures.

"Fuck, Paige, what am I going to do?" Speaking to the almost empty room, almost wishing her sister's ghost would answer. "How had things gotten so bad and still so good all at once?" she gripped the pendant she always wore as she spoke. Holding the crescent shape was her only connection to her Paige, but this time it didn't bring her the comfort it had in the past.

"Hey," Armitage's voice broke her out of her spiraling thoughts, the soft baritone a balm to her frayed nerves. "How's he doing?"

Rose watched as he moved to his friend lying on the bed. This man was his brother; Rose thought as he touched Finn's hand gently. He had lost people the same as she had and, like her, was trying to hold on to what little joy he could find in the world. 

"Hey, Finn, listen, I called Jannah. She told me to tell you that if you don't come back to her, she will bring you back to life and kill you herself."

Rose laughed at the comment. 

She didn't know Finn's wife, but she liked her already. She would say the same thing about Armitage if the situation raised. 

"Max is being so strong and is excited about you are coming home." Rose felt a tightness in her chest and the mention of Finn's son. "So, you have to pull through, you hear me. Or else Jannah is going to be mad at both of us, and she scares the shit out of me!"

Rose laughed out loud at that, making Armitage turn to face her, smiling; he moved the short distance to envelop her into his arms. Armitage wasn't a large man, but the feeling of his body wrapped around her was exquisite. 

"This is my fault," Rose's words causing Armitage to pull away to look down at her.

"How do you figure that?"

"I let him in here."

"Rose,"

"No, I did. I let Snap into my camp. I didn't double-check any of his qualifications when the organization sent him. I let him spend time with the children, teach them. Fuck, Armitage, I slept with him. I slept with a warlord."

"Rose, how would you have known? He had everyone fooled. His cover was excellent."

"Sabine knew." Rose finally pulled away, pacing the small floor.

"Well, personally, I think Sabine isn't fully human," Armitage said, trying to lighten the mood, but Rose wasn't falling for it.

"She hated him from the first moment. But I thought it was just her fear of men. But she took to you and the rest so quickly. 

Then he wouldn't leave her or me alone I should have had him sent away. But did I? no, because I didn't want to rock the boat. I didn't want to bring too much attention to my camp."

Rose collapsed into the chair again, completely broken. 

I killed Kaydel with my actions, Armitage."

"Rose, I won't let you talk like that."

"What? It's true. I didn't want any unnecessary attention brought onto Resistance, so I just waited until his commotion was up in three months. 

That means that I allowed that man to be here, endanger the lives of every single person at this camp. That bomb could have taken anyone, Armitage. It could have taken," She hiccupped, trying to keep herself from letting out a deep sob.

"But it didn't, Rose. Sabine is safe with Poe and BB. She's never going to be put in that kind of danger again."

"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!" Rose yelled back at him.

"Yes, my love, I do." Rose watched as he moved closer to her. "I just got off the phone with Finn's wife, Jannah. She's a nurse in London, but her first position was with the SAS medical core; that's where they met. We have a chopper standing by to take Finn to Jarrus, our home base, and London once you say he's safe to fly." he paused before speaking again. "Jannah has agreed to take Sabine as well."

Rose was both relieved, a little pissed he had made these plans without her.

"I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable with her flying on her own. But"

"She wouldn't be on her own," he said carefully. "I want you to leave as well. It's not safe for you here."

"Excuse me?"

"Rogue Team is going to evacuate the camp and,"

"The hell you are."

"Rose, listen to me; you are not safe here."

Rose stood in the middle of the room dumbfounded. "No, you listen to me, Commander Hux, you cannot come into my camp and tell me what to do." She moved closer, stabbing him in the chest for emphasis. "If you think I'm that type of woman, you can go and find someone else. I am not backing down; I don't give a shit who we're dealing with or who has died. I know death; I see it every day. And I do not fear it." Rose walked out of the tent and into the warm night air. 

Where had the day gone?

How dare he decide what was best for her. How dare he come into her life and think he could dictate what was best for her and her camp. How dare he be so sweet and kind while still being so insufferable? Rose was not about to allow him to make plans for her and Sabine after only a few days, no matter that getting Sabine out was in hers and the child's best interest. Snap, or whatever the fuck his name was, didn't want her. Rose was a nobody in the grand scheme of things, so her staying was not a problem. 

Sabine's safety was paramount to Rose, seconded only by the safety of her camp. Sabine would be on that plane to London, but Rose would stay and make sure the rest of her people, the ones who had put their trust and faith in her, were safe as well. 

But first, a shower to wash off all of the day's events. When she was clean, skin scrubbed, and face washed, Rose could focus on what to do next.

"Well, you buggered that right up, didn't you, mate?"

Hux turned to face Finn, who, he had thought, was still unconscious. 

"I'm positive it couldn't have gone any worse," walking over to the bed, Hux sat in the same chair Rose had occupied when he entered the tent. 

"Of course, it could have." Finn smiled. "She could've slapped you. and you probably would have deserved it"

Hux chuckled at his friend as he positioned the chair to face him lying in bed.

"You gave us a real scare there, you right, _Moran_. How ya' feeling?"

Finn looked down the length of his body lying flat on the bed, tubes and electrical equipment coming out every which way.

"I'm still here, Mate. Going to take a lot more than some ambush to take me down." Finn's answer was upbeat, but Hux still felt bitter about how the operation had gone tits up in a matter of moments. "Hey, Hux, did anyone else,"

"No. I got grazed, and Ben and Poe have a few scratches." Hux knew he needed to fill Finn in on the new intel, but he didn't know if now the best time was. Finn had only just woken up. His body was still recovering from the ambush in the desert just hours ago. 

"But?" Finn said, filling in the last part Hux hadn't voiced. "What was the Doc talking about? What about Kaydel? That's the other Doc, right? The one Gwen fancied?"

Hux nodded.

" _Fecking hell_ Finn shit has really hit the wall." Hux filled his comrade in on the newest developments about Kaydel, who Snap Wexley really was, and wanting to evacuate the camp.

"wait, let me get this straight," Finn said, trying to process the information Hux had just dumped on him all at once. "You told Rose you planned to send her and her child out of this place with me, without talking with her first? Fuck, General, you are such an idiot."

"What?"

"You can't tell a woman like that what to do. A woman like Rose doesn't need you to protect her. When Jannah and I met, I wanted, no, I NEEDED to protect her from the horrors of the world. From what I saw every day at my job. It wasn't right for her to see the blood and death and the all-out nightmare we see day to day. And do you know what she did?"

Hux smiled but still shook his head, answering Finn's question.

"She stood up, those beautiful shoulders thrown back, perfectly arched eyebrows raised, and told me if I were ever to speak to her like that again, she would make sure I never fathered children."

Hux smiled at the image Finn had described. Hux knew Jannah, knew her to be a strong and capable woman. She was smart, brave, and the best mother he had ever known.

"Jannah was a battle-hardened, frontline tactical nurse, and I dared to think she needed to be protected. You don't tell a woman forged in the fires of war; you are doing something to protect her. You stand next to her and let her know you have her back. Look at this place, Hux. She built this from the ground up. She has probably seen more blood, gore, death, and destruction than either of us combined, and it's a life she chose. The Doc isn't your Mother, Hux. She can and will protect herself and those she loves. But if you try to keep her from doing just that, she won't thank you for it."

"You're awake," A woman's voice interrupted Hux before he could respond to Finn's revelation.

"Yes, ma'am," Finn said to the nurse with a smile. "Hux, go find your lady and hope she forgives you."

Hux left the medical tent quickly, panicking slightly when he saw she wasn't there. Hux looked around the room, noticing her boots were off, and her towel and bathing bag was gone. Quickly he ran across the courtyard to the officer's shower tent, bursting through the door.

"What the fuck?!" She shouted out as she tried to cover herself. "I don't want to talk to you, Armitage." She said, turning the spray back on and standing under it.

"Please, Rose, hear me out." Hux watched as she rinsed off, turned the water off again, and wrapped herself in the towel. She walked out of the small enclosure and stopped to slide her slippers on. Hux moved closer to her and went to his knees before her in the act of desperation.

"I've been an _eejit_. An absolute asshole." He began, the words coming out in a rush.

"Go on." She said, folding her arms in front of her.

"I was scared and didn't think of anything but my need to protect you." He could see her frustration as he spoke and tried to backtrack. "Fuck, sorry, this isn't coming outright. Let me try again."

Hux stood in front of her again, taking a deep breath and fists tightening and contracting, he began speaking.

"I was scared. Kelvin is not someone you want to be around your worst enemy, so imagine having him around the woman you love. I couldn't stop Kaydel from her fate, and the pain you are going through only added to my desperation."

He moved closer to her now, taking her hand in his. "There has only ever been one woman in my life, my Mum. And I couldn't protect her from my father. I saw it happen, I knew he thought she had turned him in and his hatred of her ate away at him. I killed my mother because I was too young and too weak to stop him. So when I saw you and Sabin were in danger, I reacted the way I wish I had back then.

"But you're not me Mammy. You're not someone I need to protect from the bleakness of the world. I fell in love with you because you are someone I can stand beside when shit goes to tits. You being here, being so close to Kelvin, scares me more than I can ever tell you, but you know how to take care of yourself, and I have to remember that. I have to,"

His words were cut off by Rose's mouth crashing down on his. Her hands gripping his shirt and pulling him down to her level was awkward, but it only took Hux a slip second to wrap his arms around her, lifting her in the air. 

"I love you." Rose finally pulled away enough to get those three words out only to have Hux's mouth covers hers again. 

Hux placed her on her feet again, pulling the towel off her still wet body, and felt his heart stop. It was like this every time he saw her naked; her sun-kissed skin was like a golden signal of hope in his dark world. Hux reached out to caress her face then ran his fingers between the valley of her supple breasts; the large orbs a perfect fit for his hands and dark nipples, his favorite candy to suck on.

" _Fook_ Flower, you are so beautiful," he said as she pulled down his pants and boxer briefs all in one tug, kissing his chest as she did so.

Hux looked around the room; the floor was cold and dirty, not good enough for his woman to stand on, let alone make love on. Instead, Hux picked Rose up once again and walked them back into the small shower stall, the tile wall sturdy enough to help hold her as he began to thrust into her tight and welcoming body.

She loved him. Hux repeated the words to himself with every deep thrust. When he felt her inner walls tighten and contract around his cock, he retook her mouth, the sweet taste of her mouth and her orgasm enough to push him over the edge as well. 

It took long moments for him to feel calm enough to carefully let her down, sliding out of the warm confines of her pussy. Turning the water back on, Hux kissed her as he washed her body, taking extra time at her core. Coxing one more shuttering orgasm from her before turning the water off and drying her.

Returning his pants to their original placement, Hux lifted Rose, towel, and all into his arms, carrying her across the yard and back into her tent. 

"Armitage, people will see us!" Rose laughed as the cool night air hit their rapidly cooling bodies.

"And I couldn't care any _fooking_ less. I'm taking you to bed and making love to you the rest of the bloody night, Rose Tico. You love me, and that's the only thing I give a shit about."


End file.
